Ask the Scholar
Document scope · 1 page
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory.
For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.
Source Description
These records pertain to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's nomination.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
286185929
label
Clarence Thomas
core
doc
dtoType
document
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
286185929
contentType
document
title
Clarence Thomas
description
These records pertain to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's nomination.
citationUrl
identifierLocal
07361-013
collections
Records of the White House Office of Media Affairs (George H. W. Bush Administration)
Katherine Holt Files
largeImageUrl
imageCount
1
hasImages
yes
source
import
hasTranscription
no
Source extras
naId
286185929
levelOfDescription
fileUnit
recordType
description
ocrSource
nara-archive
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
document
mediaId
85fb5fc5a44b1295
ocrText
Originally Processed With FOIA(s):
FOIA Number:
1998-0207-F
1998-0207-F
FOIA
MARKER
This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the George Bush Presidential
Library Staff.
Record Group/Collection:
George H.W. Bush Presidential Records
Collection/Office of Origin:
Media Affairs, White House Office of
Series:
Holt, Katherine, Files
Subseries:
OA/ID Number:
07361
Folder ID Number:
07361-013
Folder Title:
Clarence Thomas
Stack:
Row:
Section:
Shelf:
Position:
G
14
17
4
3
7/9/91
EXCELLENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS
O
In an editorial on July 2, 1991, the Wall Street Journal
stated: "Judge Thomas is precisely the kind of jurist President
Bush assured voters he would select. He would take the
Constitution seriously and apply the laws equally. We eagerly
await the beginnig of many years of service by Justice Clarence
Thomas."
O
In nominating Judge Thomas to be an Associate Justice on the
Supreme Court, President Bush stated: "Judge Thomas' life is a
model for all Americans, and he's earned the right to sit on this
nation's highest court." The President observed that Judge
Thomas "has excelled in everything that he has attempted, " and
described him as "a fiercely independent thinker with an
excellent legal mind, who believes passionately in equal
opportunity for all Americans."
O
Senator Danforth said of Judge Thomas, "I know him to be an
absolutely first rate lawyer, and beyond that, I know him to be a
first-rate human being." WT, 7/3/91.
O
Senator Dole said that Judge Thomas is "a man whose very
life exemplifies the American dream.' WP, 7/2/91.
0
Senator Hatch said, "This man understands the difficulties
of life. He has had a tough life but he's made it all the way.
Anybody who takes him on in the area of civil rights is taking on
the grandson of a sharecropper." NYT, 7/2/91.
O
According to Lovida Coleman, a Washington Lawyer, friend,
and classmate from Yale (and the daughter of William Coleman),
"[h]e made it strictly on the merits, and he resents the notion
that he's ever gotten anywhere because he's black.' NYT, 7/2/91.
O
R. Gaull Silberman, Vice Chairman of the EEOC when Thomas
was Chairman, said, "This man made the EEOC. He built it into a
first-class law enforcement agency. We took three times as many
cases, got more relief for more people than any other time in
history." WT, 7/4/91. She added that "[h]e is uniquely
qualified in terms of character and intellect, and he has the
courage of a lion. What else do you need?" Id.
O
She also said of Thomas, "He is dignified, reflective,
direct, careful, courageous.
LAT, 7/7/91.
O
The Washington Post stated in an editorial that "even those
who have disagreed with him on policy grounds will concede that
his life, which began in extreme poverty, has been one of
accomplishment. If confirmed, he would bring to the court a
range of experience not shared by any other sitting justice."
WP, 7/2/91.
o
Alan Keyes wrote recently that, on the basis of the
nominee's constitutional philosophy and his character, "it would
have been difficult for Mr. Bush to find anyone more qualified
than Judge Thomas. Throughout his public career, he has
displayed the intellectual honesty, integrity and moral courage
that are the crucial but all too rare ingredients of great public
service." WT, 7/8/91.
O
Judge Karen Henderson said of Judge Thomas, "He is, to me,
the living embodiment of the American dream fulfilled. He's
accomplished so much, and he has come from a background of
deprivation and poverty and discrimination, and he has just
triumphed." Legal Times of Washington, 7/8/91.
O
According to Judge Stephen Williams, Judge Thomas' "great
concern is to get things right." Legal Times of Washington,
7/8/91.
O
Virginia Governor Douglas Wilder has said that Judge Thomas
is "eminently qualified" to sit on the Supreme Court. USA Today,
7/8/91.
o
Georgia State Senator Roy Allen, a friend from school, said
that while Judge Thomas' upbringing could be called conservative,
"to me, he represents the dream that African-Americans want to
achieve. I don't know if you can dissect that into labels --
conservative, liberal or whatever. He's a guy who has
principles." WT, 7/2/91.
O
Senator Danforth has said that Judge Thomas is "a
compassionate kind of conservative," "the people's nominee for
the Supreme Court, the best of America." US News & World Report,
7/15/91, at 25.
O
"Thomas does not walk away from disadvantaged blacks;
indeed, he has invested years trying to help them." Id. at 84.
O
Senator Heflin said that, while he is keeping an open mind
about Judge Thomas' nomination, Thomas has "all the tools of
craftsmanship" for a good justice. Huntsville Times, 7/5/91.
o
John Jacobs, Executive Director of the National Urban
League, said that "[w]hat Judge Thomas brings to the nomination
is a background of poverty and minority status. While he is
conservative, he cannot deny what he has been in life." WT,
7/2/91.
o
Thomas Jipping of the Coalitions for America, a conservative
group, said that Judge Thomas has "a ton of merit." Associated
Press, 7/5/91.
- 2 -
O
According to Father John E. Brooks, President of Holy Cross
College, "[h]e's obviously not a flaming liberal, but he's no
knee-jerk conservative either. He wants to do his own thinking.
He's not following a crowd." NYT, 7/3/91.
O
Tom O'Brien, a close friend, characterizes Thomas as
"honest" and "courageous" and says "I can't imagine him belying
his own system of beliefs for anything." NYT, 7/3/91.
0
When Judge Thomas was nominated to the District of Columbia
Circuit, William T. Coleman, Jr., the former Secretary of
Transportation, said that "this is a fine appointment and
...
Mr. Thomas will add further luster and judicial ability to the
Court." He added that "he had met every challenge placed before
him. He is equal to and has the courage to decide legal issues
according to the statutes and the precedents.
...
To these
talents he adds the drive and understanding of human fraities
which those who have not always had it easy had to have to reach
important positions of public service."
O At the time of his nomination to the District of Columbia
Circuit, Congressman Jim Kolbe of Arizona wrote that he found
Clarence Thomas "a man of intelligence, integrity and supreme
ability. He is singularly reponsible for the success the
Commission has had in recent years." He also wrote that Thomas
"has been an aggressive and effective advocate for the work of
the Commission
0 When Thomas was nominated to the court of appeals, Robert G.
Dowd, the Presiding Judge of the Missouri Court of Appeals, wrote
that "Mr. Thomas has an outstanding civil rights record and has
demonstrated leadership and excellence as Chairman of the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission." He added that he "sincerely
believe [d] that Mr. Thomas would bring honor, excellen[ce], and
scholarship to the appellate court."
O
In support of Judge Thomas' nomination to the court of
appeals, Congressman Dick Armey wrote: "Mr. Thomas has served in
an exemplary manner as Chairman of the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission and is an outstanding candidate for
appointment to the court.
...
Consistent with the purpose of
the EEOC, Mr. Thomas has played a vital role in ensuring that
older Americans and minorities have access to a fair and
equitable means of redress."
O
In October 1989, the President of the International
Association of Official Human Rights Agencies wrote this in
support of Clarence Thomas' nomination for the D.C. Circuit:
"Throughout Clarence Thomas' tenure as Chairman of the [EEOC], he
has demonstrated fairness, objectivity, clarity of expression,
and receptivity to new ideas. He added that Thomas "would bring
to the Federal judiciary a sense of fairness, a passion for
- 3 -
fundamental commitment to the rule of law, and a temperament that
would bring great credit to our system of justice."
O
In support of Clarence Thomas' nomination for a seat on the
D.C. Circuit, Thomas L. Jipping of Save America's Youth wrote:
"Clarence Thomas' credentials and performance are exemplary. So
is his character, integrity, and temperament." In a press
release, Save America's Youth declared that Thomas "is truly an
outstanding example for America's youth."
O
Claudia Woods, General Counsel for Save America's Youth and
a black American, wrote in October 1989 to thank President Bush
for nominating Thomas for the D.C. Circuit: "While Mr. Thomas'
outstanding and remarkable credentials alone make him a superb
choice for the judgeship, his sensitivity and personal
experiences make him an even greater choice to serve on the
federal court known to decide some of the most important civil
rights and constitutional questions of our country."
O
At the time of Judge Thomas' nomination to fill a vacancy on
the D.C. Circuit, former EEOC coleague Fred W. Alvarez wrote:
"He will take to the bench the same qualities he brought to EEOC:
a reverence and respect for people and their rights, a
fundamental understanding of struggle, arbitrary barriers and the
value of hard work, and a stubborn commitment to law and to legal
precedent.'
o
At the time of his nomination to the court of appeals, the
Heritage Foundation wrote of Thomas that he "has been an
effective Director of the EEOC, and he is a brilliant legal
scholar.'
o
The Coalitions for America, in support of Thomas' nomination
for the court of appeals, wrote that Thomas "demonstrated superb
management ability" and that he had led the agency "out of the
doldrums in which it had languished."
o
The President recently said that Judge Thomas "offers what I
think is a very stirring testament to what people can do when
they refuse to take no for an answer, when through sheer
determination they overcome the obstacles that others have placed
in their way. WP, 7/9/91.
O Senator Dole said that Thomas is an "outstanding nominee."
WP, 7/9/91.
- 4 -
7/9/91
Fairness and Sensitivity
O
Judge Thomas has a deep and abiding respect for the law. In
his confirmation hearing for his nomination to the Court of
Appeals, Judge Thomas stated, "I have always taken my oath
extremely seriously. And even when I had signficant personal
differences, I have given
...
priority to the law.
O
Judge Thomas told the Senate Judiciary Committee: "[T]he
reason I became a lawyer was to make sure that minorities,
individuals who did not have access to this society gained
access. Now, I may differ with others as to how best to do that,
but the objective has always been to include those who have been
excluded.'
O
John Jacobs, Executive Director of the National Urban
League, said that "[w]hat Judge Thomas brings to the nomination
is a background of poverty and minority status. While he is
conservative, he cannot deny what he has been in life." WT,
7/2/91.
0
Senator Danforth called Judge Thomas "conservative, but a
compassionate kind of conservative, not rigid or ideological in
his views. His every motive is that he empathizes with ordinary
people, he's one of them. WP, 7/2/91.
O
Orian Douglass, a lawyer in Brunswick, Georgia, who is a
friend of Judge Thomas, said that "[h]e's going to hold himself
spiritually accountable for his decisions. He's not going to
rule one way or the other because of pressure. He came up the
rough side of the mountain, and I know he's not going to be
insensitive." NYT, 7/3/91.
o
President Bush has said that he told Judge Thomas "to do
like the umpire: call 'em as you see 'em." The President added
that Judge Thomas will "approach the cases that come before the
Court with a commitment to deciding them fairly, as the facts and
the law require.' NYT, 7/2/91.
o
A law school classmate and former Carter Administration
official describes Judge Thomas this way: "We are talking about
a person who understands what it's like to be black and poor in
this country and to face the worst kinds of prejudice. The kind
of experiences he's had, he will not block those from his
thinking." WP, 7/2/91.
O
Circuit Judge Damon Keith, a Carter appointee often
described as a judicial liberal, has this to say about Judge
Thomas: "If I or a member of my family were in trouble, he is
the kind of person I'd like to appear before. Our judicial
philosophy may not be the same, but he is a bright and reflective
man who believes passionately in fairness. I say this without
man who believes passionately in fairness. I say this without
reservation, and in full knowledge of all the people who complain
about him." WSJ, 7/2/91.
- 2 -
Withdrawal/Redaction Sheet
(George Bush Library)
Document No.
Subject/Title of Document
Date
Restriction
Class.
and Type
01. Memo
From Deb Amend to Dorrance Smith
07/10/91
-P-2,P-5.
Re: Clarence Thomas OP/EDS (3 pp.)
Collection:
Record Group:
Bush Presidential Records
Office:
Media Affairs, White House Office of
Open on Expiration of PRA
Series:
Holt, Katherine
(Document Follows)
Subseries:
By MM (NLGB) on 04-05-2005
WHORM Cat.:
File Location:
Clarence Thomas
Date Closed:
5/13/1998
OA/ID Number:
07361
FOIA/SYS Case #:
Appeal Case #:
Re-review Case #:
Appeal Disposition:
P-2/P-5 Review Case #:
Disposition Date:
AR Case #:
MR Case #:
AR Disposition:
MR Disposition:
AR Disposition Date:
MR Disposition Date:
RESTRICTION CODES
Presidential Records Act - [44 U.S.C. 2204(a)]
Freedom of Information Act - [5 U.S.C. 552(b)]
P-1 National Security Classified Information [(a)(1) of the PRA]
(b)(1) National security classified information [(b)(1) of the FOIA]
P-2 Relating to the appointment to Federal office [(a)(2) of the PRA]
(b)(2) Release would disclose internal personnel rules and practices of an
P-3 Release would violate a Federal statute [(a)(3) of the PRA]
agency [(b)(2) of the FOIA]
P-4 Release would disclose trade secrets or confidential commercial or
(b)(3) Release would violate a Federal statute [(b)(3) of the FOIA]
financial information [(a)(4) of the PRA]
(b)(4) Release would disclose trade secrets or confidential or financial
P-5 Release would disclose confidential advice between the President
information [(b)(4) of the FOIA]
and his advisors, or between such advisors [a)(5) of the PRA]
(b)(6) Release would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of
P-6 Release would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of
personal privacy [(b)(6) of the FOIA]
personal privacy [(a)(6) of the PRA]
(b)(7) Release would disclose information compiled for law enforcement
purposes [(b)(7) of the FOIA]
C. Closed in accordance with restrictions contained in donor's deed of
(b)(8) Release would disclose information concerning the regulation of
gift.
financial institutions [(b)(8) of the FOIA]
(b)(9) Release would disclose geological or geophysical information
PRM. Removed as a personal record misfile.
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
JULY 10, 1991
MEMORANDUM FOR DORRANCE SMITH
FROM:
DEB AMEND DA
RE:
CLARENCE THOMAS OP/EDS
Confirmed OP/EDs
The following people are currently working on OP/EDs about
Judge Thomas for placement as soon as possible in the papers
indicated:
1.) Senator John Danforth, the Washington Post.
2.) Fred Alvarez, the San Francisco Chronicle.
3.) Rev. John Brooks, the New York Times.
4.) Rufus Cormier, the Houston Post.
5.) Willie King, the Atlanta Constitution.
6.) Alphonso Jackson, the Dallas Morning News (this
Sunday).
7.) Professor Shelby Steele, the San Jose Mercury News.
8.) Dr. Keith Butler, the Detroit Free Press.
9.) Richard Leon, the Chicago Sun Times.
The people on this list will be writing and placing their
own pieces based on their personal relationships with the Judge.
OP/EDs in the Works:
Additionally, we have contacted these people about OP/EDs
and have some projects in the works, but not nailed down:
1.) Ricky Silberman. Her OP/ED appeared in Sunday's LA
Times.
Roy Alten
4times
A9
Thelma
Drck Williams
Additionally, Ricky Silberman is working on senior
issues related to the EEOC and will have an article in
next month's "Vintage Times", the magazine of the
American Association of Retired Persons. Because
"Vintage Times" has a modest circulation, we have asked
"Modern Maturity", the magazine of the AARP with a
significantly higher circulation, to consider a piece
by an administration surrogate and they are sort of
receptive to the idea. They may do a point/counter-
point style thing should they decide to editorialize
against Judge Thomas.
2.) David Brown. Monsanto has two plants in Illinois and
they will see what they can do about a piece for the Chicago
Tribune. David suggests that Monsanto General Counsel, Dick
Dusenberg, would be a better name on the OP/ED, and will see
if he can't make this happen.
3.) Professor Stephen Carter of Yale University will do a
legal/constitutional piece for publication closer to the
hearing for the Wall Street Journal. He was on the list to
sound out and he is supportive.
4.) Pam Talkin has submitted a piece to the White House
legal counsel's office and we need to figure out how and
where to place it. We should have this nailed down
tomorrow.
5.) Sister Vigilius. I talked to USA Today about doing
some sort of interview with this 70 year old nun and mentor
of Judge Thomas. I think she would make a great guest
columnist or featured guest in the OP/ED page's Q&A section.
The editorial page editor was "intrigued". They do not plan
to run an editorial package until the hearings. If the
Sister is willing, we'll nail this down tomorrow.
6.) Alan Moore and Alex Netchvolodoff are working with
Margaret Bush Wilson on a piece for the St. Louis Post
Dispatch. We are working with them.
7.) Governor Ashcroft is also doing a piece for the St.
Louis Post Dispatch. Alex Netchvolodoff has been asked to
write a piece for the St. Louis Post Dispatch. I believe
this is overkill and we will sort it out tomorrow.
8.) Senator Danforth's office is also working on a generic
OP/ED for distribution nation wide. This will go out after
the Washington Post article is completed.
Additionally:
1.) Professor Lucian Barker is going to stay out of the
debate. He was on the list to sound out and would not be
willing to endorse publicly.
2.) Harriet Erlich -- can't track her down anywhere.
3.) Professor Randall Kennedy -- trading phone calls.
Specialty Press:
1. Black press. We have been asked by the American
Newspaper Association for a special package and are
preparing a mailing for distribution ASAP.
2. Catholic Press. We are working on catholic surrogates
for major catholic newspapers.
And Finally:
At this stage, with so many op/eds up in the air, it is
critical that when we talk to people about writing OP/EDs we
coordinate our efforts. No doubt some of these pieces will
be rejected for one reason or another, and we will need to
keep track of placement, fall back newspapers, progress,
etc.
We need additional surrogates for the regional press,
Georgia, Arizona and Virginia in particular. I've asked
Senator Danforth's office to help on this front as well.
Since Danforth is one of our most effective surrogates for
the Administration on this, we've arranged for routine
contact with the Senator's press office to coordinate our
efforts.
We are working on a system to respond to all negative
editorials and should have the first batch out the door
tomorrow.
We are working on radio call-in programs, especially for
black surrogates on black call-in programs, per Judy Smith
recommendation.
QUOTES FROM CLARENCE THOMAS
On Civil Rights:
I wasn't alone. There are those of you here today who have my
memories -- who knew the same hurt, and who have shared the same
satisfaction in seeing the changes brought about by the Civil
Rights movement.
That movement has brought about enormous societal changes in the
United States. To name just a few, there has been a host of civil
rights laws, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964; dual public
school systems were eliminated; fair housing laws were passed;
colleges and universities once closed to minorities opened their
doors; and equal employment laws were passed. In short, measures
affecting every one of the fundamental aspects of daily life --
housing, jobs, education, the right to participate in a democratic
government -- were enacted.
These new laws changed the entire way of life for many Americans.
They continue to do so. And they are basic to the very functioning
of our system of government.
I believe in the vigorous enforcement of civil rights laws and have
pledged to do everything I can to pursue such enforcement by the
EEOC. There are some who claim that this administration has turned
its back on civil rights enforcement, that it has no civil rights
policy, that it is satisfied to watch the clock get turned back in
civil rights areas. Those who make this claim are wrong. I will
have no part in turning back the clock, or in seeing past progress
undermined by current laxness.
June 3, 1982
D.C. Chapter of the Industrial
Relations Research Association
On the NAACP:
The NAACP has a history of which we can all be proud. From its
inception in 1909 til today, the work this organization has done
in the area of civil rights is unmatched by any other such group.
At each turn in the development of blacks in this country, the
NAACP has been there to meet the many challenges. In the past,
those challenges ranged from voter registration drives to fighting
injustices in the legal system. In each situation the NAACP has
fought hard and has won many battles. But the battles are not
over. There are many still to be fought and hopefully many will
be won. But winning these battles will require new strategies and
creative thinking on your part. The name "The Crisis", selected
as the name of the official publication of the NAACP, was taken
from a poem "The Present Crisis", written by James Russell Lowell.
The words are as applicable to the problems of today as they were
in 1909. Three lines from that poem are especially appropriate
today:
New occasions teach new duties: Time makes ancient
good uncouth;
They must upward still, and onward, who would keep
abreast of truth;
Lo before us gleam her camp-fires! We ourselves
must Pilgrims be.
At the EEOC, we recognize our "new duties" and we are beginning to
develop these new strategies and to truly fulfill our role as
protectors of the rights of all. Our role is that of federal
enforcer. The role of the NAACP, of course, is that of advocate.
I realize, that as an advocate for our race, our efforts have been
unsurpassed. As a true advocate, it is imperative that you carry
the same energy you have used in the past into the 1980's to meet
the new challenges. However, the new challenges require more than
the energy of the past. The new challenges require you to be
"Pilgrims" as you face the future. While the NAACP's history is
one of countless accomplishments, you can not afford to rest on
that history.
October 23, 1982
Maryland Conference of NAACP
On Civil Rights:
It has been nearly nineteen years since Title VII was incorporated
in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, since equal employment opportunity
became the law of the land. Since those days when we, who had been
locked out of the American dream for centuries, rejoiced, knowing
hope, at last, was on the way.
And, the federal government must continue to pave the way in civil
rights. The federal government has always had both a profound
moral obligation and a constitutional duty to protect individual
rights. Increasingly that ideal has gained the force of the law.
But, in the words of Frederick Douglass, "Power concedes nothing
without a demand." And, even the government did not move
decisively until the thunderous demand of protest against injustice
could, no longer, be ignored.
For in one of the most compelling and glorious events in this
nation's history, a vast cross-section of this nation's population
was on the march -- a march for justice -- a march to turn this
nation from its schizophrenic posture between its stated beliefs,
the ideals on which it was founded, and the reality of its
existence. A nation, founded on the principles of liberty and
justice, began to see that its anthems and credos had a hollow
ring. A nation which had averted its eyes by playing hide and seek
with the stranger knocking at the door. And, as the poet Dylan
says, "He was wearing the clothes that you once wore."
A nation long deaf to the pleas of the impoverished heard the sound
of marching feet, marching to Birmingham, to Selma, to Jackson.
It heard that the bank of liberty had, as Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. said, "insufficient funds" to right the wrongs America had
heaped upon its minority citizens.
The eyes of the world turned on America. No longer could the
champion of freedom and justice abroad continue to be the bastion
of separate but equal at home. No longer could people who, for 300
years, had contributed mightily to the development of this nation
be denied a full partnership in its destiny. No longer would this
country be allowed to turn its back on so many among us who had
suffered so long from the denial of the American dream.
The spirit of the Declaration of Independence, reborn in the civil
rights movement, became embodied in the laws of the land. And the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was created to make certain
these laws would be enforced.
December 6, 1983
EEOC Seminar
Pittsburgh, PA
On Civil Rights:
My grandparents, who raised me, are perfect examples of what
discrimination can do Early in life, as I watched them toil
away, I realized that their efforts would be seriously impeded by
something beyond their control -- racial discrimination. They had
overcome the lack of formal education, the Great Depression and an
assortment of other adversities. But, no matter what efforts they
made race was a roadblock to taking full advantage of the benefits
of this country. As a result of living through this experience and
other experiences, I have strong views about civil rights.
Many of us have walked through doors opened by the civil rights
leaders, now you must see that others do the same. As individuals
who have received the benefit of an education which was probably
denied your fathers and mothers, and in some cases sisters and
brothers, you must devise a plan for a civil rights movement for
the 1980s.
1983
Integrated Education
Volume 21
So again I find myself challenging you. This time with the words
of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. "It is time for the Negro 'haves'
to join hands with the 'have-nots' and, with compassion, journey
into the other country of hurt and denial. It is time for the
Negro
middle class to rise up from its stool of indifference, to retreat
from its flight into unreality and to bring its full resources -
- its heart, its mind and its checkbook -- to the aid of the less
fortunate brother."
August 5, 1983
Inroads, Inc.
Knoxville, TN.
On Discrimination:
Through my radical days, through my days at New Haven Legal
Assistance, through the summer working under a grant from the Law
Student's Civil Rights Research Council, I did not forget. Through
Holy Cross and Yale, I did not forget. As Assistant Attorney
General and Assistant Secretary, I did not forget. As Chairman of
the EEOC, I cannot and will not forget. I can never forget the
agony of discrimination -- the humiliation of prejudice.
Like many blacks, I have lived without indoor plumbing; without
electricity; without adequate heating. I have eaten Kelloggs Corn
Flakes with water and Pet Milk. I have eaten the edges trimmed
from breads used to make "hors d'oeuvres" for white people. I was
born and raised in a segregated society -- separate libraries,
movies, water fountains, separate parks.
I have mowed lawns, plowed, and cut hay, stripped fodder, cleaned
sewers, ground sugar cane and made syrup. These were things my
grandfather told me I had to learn to survive. But he also
imparted values which I retain to this day. Among them is honesty.
Another is personal integrity. I have no intention of sacrificing
my principles to accommodate others or because it would be
expedient.
I am an American -- a black American. Nothing hurts me so much as
the sufferings of my race. I firmly believe that the sufferings
and the problems we face are so great that all who recognize them
must look for solutions. We need new ideas in our arsenal of
weapons to fight discrimination. At no time must we allow
ourselves to believe that we must agree on every issue. We are not
robots -- we are a creative, resilient race. Just as we are
different we have different ideas and different opinions.
We cannot -- no, we must not believe that we must all think alike
anymore than we believe we all look alike. And we must not give
up the struggle.
March 24, 1984
Holy Cross College
On Brown V. Board of Education:
It has now been thirty years since the Supreme Court, for the first
time since Reconstruction, began to transfer into reality the creed
of our Declaration of Independence. It has been thirty years since
the Supreme Court took that first brave but fragile step into
making America truly one nation -- a nation bound and governed by
one set of laws for all. It has been thirty years since the much
heralded soul of this nation, first crept from beneath the veneer
of hypocrisy. Three decades ago, nine men of the law moved to make
the creed of America reality for all.
Although the Brown decision over-turned the Plessy V. Ferguson
doctrine of "separate but equal" in the area of education only, it
marked the beginning of an era of at least an overt consensus that
segregation and racial injustice were illegal and morally wrong -
- a consensus that opened the floodgates to an era of reform
considered by many to be the second Reconstruction.
April 23, 1984
Temple University
School of Law
On Segregation:
Was it the great migration with its sudden concentration of blacks
in the urban North and the new beginning of black political
awareness that had begotten a change in the name of the political
game?
Or the surge of pride which black folks felt as they huddled around
their ghetto radios to hear Joe Louis preaching equality with his
fists, or hear Jesse Owens humbling Hitler with his feet?
Was it A. Phillip Randolph, mobilizing 100,000 blacks ready to
march on Washington in 1941 -- and FDR hurriedly signing Executive
Order 8802 banning discrimination in war industries and
apprenticeship programs?
Or the 99th Pursuit Squadron, trained in segregated units at
Tuskegee, flying like demons in the death struggle high over Italy?
or black soldiers storming up beaches called Anzio and Normandy?
Was it Rosa Parks who said "No" she wouldn't move; and Daisy Bates
who said "Yes", black children would go to Central High School?
Or the arrival of black leaders at the United Nations building in
New York and on Embassy Row in Washington -- men like
Kwame N'Krumah and Sekou Toure -- who blew forever the myth of
Mumbo Jumbo, King of the Congo?
Or the three men who had been the black man's embodiment of
Blitzkrieg -- the most phenomenal legal brains ever combined in one
century for the onslaught against injustice -- Charles Houston,
William Hastie, Thurgood Marshall?
Was it Martin Luther King and Malcolm X who posed the question of
evolution or revolution?
Or a group of students who said, "We've had enough. I mean, what's
so sacred about a sandwich, Jack?"
Or men named Warren, Frankfurter, Black, Douglas who read the Bill
of Rights and believed?
But whatever -- it was on -- in the streets, at the lunch counters,
on the buses. And though the North tried hard to keep attention
focused on the South, it was as. plain as a ghetto that Messrs.
Mason and Dixon had not defined the boundaries of ugliness and
injustice.
Brown marked the turn in the tide. If segregation in education was
unlawful, was it legal in public accommodations, in employment, in
housing? The world waited to hear America's answer.
White America, for the first time since the Republican domination
of Reconstruction was being forced to deal with the unjust plight
of its "invisible" race. Blacks and their often newly-found white
allies stormed the Jericho of segregation -- and the walls came
tumbling down.
April 7 1984
Yale Law School
Black Law Students
Association Conference
On Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:
Last month, we celebrated the birthday of a man who articulated and
dramatized what my day-to-day heroes taught us. Holidays such as
Dr. King's birthday should be occasions when we can see what we
have in common with each other, rather than dwell on what divides
us.
Martin Luther King, the man who spoke of having a dream, reflected
that the Declaration of Independence speaks of not some men, but
of all men.
Dr. King described the Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution as "a promissory note to which every American was to
fall heir. But despite the bad check America had written black
Americans, Dr. King refused to believe that the "Bank of Justice"
was bankrupt. He knew that the resources of America were great.
He imagined a nation where his children would be judged not "by the
color of their skin but by the content of their character" and that
this was "deeply rooted in the American dream."
I still believe that today. And the Equal Emp oyment Opportunity
Commission strives to bring our reality closer to that dream.
March 1, 1988
Presidential Classroom for
Young Americans
7/9/91
Judge Thomas on the Civil Rights Movement
Judge Thomas has seen the effects of discrimination and has
acknowledged the great debt that Afro-Americans have to the civil
rights leaders:
My grandparents, who raised me, are perfect examples of what
discrimination can do
Early in life, as I watched
them toil away, I realized that their efforts would be
seriously impeded by something beyond their control --
racial discrimination. They had overcome the lack of formal
education, the Great Depression and an assortment of other
adversities. But, no matter what efforts they made race was
a roadblock to taking full advantage of the benefits of this
country. As a result of living through this experience and
other experiences, I have strong views about civil rights.
Many of us have walked through doors opened by the civil
rights leaders, now you must see that others do the same.
As individuals who have received the benefit of an education
which was probably denied your fathers and mothers, and in
some cases sisters and brothers, you must devise a plan for
a civil rights movement for the 1980s.
Thomas, "Discrimination and Its Effects," Integrated Education,
vol. 21, (1983).
O Referring to his grandfather's experience with racism, Judge
Thomas has said:
My grandfather knew why his business wasn't more successful,
but that didn't stop him from getting up at two in the
morning to carry ice, wood and fuel oil. Sure he knew it
was bad. They all knew too well that they were held back by
prejudice. But they weren't pinned down by it. They fought
against discrimination under the leadership of W.W. Law and
the NAACP.
O Judge Thomas has praised Martin Luther King for his leadership
of the civil rights movement and has credited Dr. King with being
the last great advocate for the view that the worth of individual
human beings is derived from principles of natural law:
Martin Luther King was the last prominent American political
figure to appeal to [natural law]
Without such a
notion of natural law, the entire American political
tradition, from Washington to Lincoln, from Jefferson to
Martin Luther King, would be unintelligible.
Thomas, Why Black Americans Should Look to Conservative Policies,
The Heritage Lectures (June 18, 1987).
O Judge Thomas has characterized the work of Martin Luther King
as follows:
The awesome task facing Dr. King was to erase the blatant
contradiction in our society, in which those who were
inherently equal were treated unequally. A contradiction we
recognized as students in segregated schools saying the
pledge of allegiance and singing about the land of the free
-- when we were not free!
Speech given January 14, 1987 before the Kiwanis Club in
Washington, D.C.
o Judge Thomas has been critical of the failure of some
conservatives to recognize the importance of the contribution of
Martin Luther King. Speaking at the Department of Justice'
commemoration of Martin Luther King Day in 1987, he said:
[Cjonservatives can learn a lesson from Dr. King. To give
some examples: Surely the free market is the best means for
all Americans, in particular those who have faced legal
discrimination, to acquire wealth. Yet the marketplace
guarantees neither justice nor truth. After all, slaves or
drugs can be bought and sold. The defense of equal
opportunity to compete in a free market is a moral one that
presupposes the Declaration [of Independence]. And Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was fighting for that goal.
Judge Thomas has also said of Dr. King that:
men and women of all parties should appreciate his great
achievement of challenging Americans to live up to the
higher law of America. In this year of the bicentennial it
would be the greatest misfortune for the successors of the
civil rights movement not to draw on the strongest resource,
the Constitution and the higher law inspiring it.
Thomas, Letter to the Editor, Commentary (April, 1987).
O Judge Thomas has also praised the many others who partook of
the great struggle for equality:
In one of the most compelling and glorious events in this
nation's history, a vast cross-section of this nation's
population was on the march -- a march for justice -- a
march to turn this nation from its schizophrenic posture
between its stated beliefs, the ideals on which it was
founded , and the reality of its existence.
...
A nation
long deaf to the pleas of the impoverished heard the sound
of marching feet, marching to Birmingham, to Selma, to
Jackson.
- 2 -
Speech given Dec. 6, 1983, before an EEOC seminar in Pittsburgh,
PA.
O Reflecting on the history of that struggle, Judge Thomas has
said:
Was it the great migration with its sudden concentration of
blacks in the urban north and the new beginning of political
awareness that had begotten a change in the name of the
political game?
Or the surge of pride which black folks felt as they huddled
around their radios to hear Joe Louis preaching equality
with his fists, or to hear Jesse Owens humbling Hitler with
his feet?
Was it A. Phillip Randolph, mobilizing 100,000 blacks ready
to march on Washington in 1941 -- and FDR hurriedly signing
executive order 8802 banning discrimination in war
industries and apprenticeship programs?
Or the 99th Pursuit Squadron, trained in segregated units at
Tuskegee, flying like demons in the death struggle high over
Italy? Or black soldiers storming up beaches called Anzio
and Normandy?
Was it Rosa Parks who said "no" we wouldn't move; and Daisy
Bates who said "yes," black children would go to Central
High School?
Or the three men who had been the black man's embodiment of
Blitzkrieg -- the most phenomenal legal brains ever combined
in one century for the onslaught against injustice --
Charles Houston, William Hastie, Thurgood Marshall?
Was it Martin Luther King and Malcolm X who polarized the
issues of black survival in America and posed the question:
By evolution or revolution?
Or men named Warren, Frankfurter, Black, Douglas who read
the Bill of Rights and believed?
or a group of students who said, "We've had enough. I mean,
what's so sacred about a sandwich, Jack?"
But whatever -- it was on -- in the streets, at the lunch
counters, on the buses. And though the North tried hard to
keep attention focused on the South, it was as plain as a
- 3 -
ghetto that Messrs. Mason and Dixon did not define the
boundaries of ugliness and injustice.
Speech given May 30, 1984 before the Quad Council Training
Conference, Oakland, CA.
O Finally, in a speech given in 1983 at a Black History Month
celebration, Judge Thomas gave his views on the lessons of the
civil rights movement for Afro-Americans and, indeed, for all
Americans:
We dare not forget all we have gone through and what we have
become. And America cannot afford for us to do so either.
These men and women who fell, and stumbled only to walk
straight again were our forbearers. Out of this human
material came freedom fighters Gabriel Prusser, Sojourner
Truth, Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner, Daniel Vesey, men and
women who forged initiatives to end their servitude and gain
freedom -- all the time revering God; journalists Mary Ann
Shadd Cary, Dr. Martin Robinson Delany, Frederick Douglass,
Gertrude Bustill Mussell, William Monroe Trotter -- the
first black recipient of a Harvard University Phi Beta Kappa
Key; creative scientists, inventors and medical researchers
Benjamin Banneker, Edward A. Bouchet -- the first Afro-
American to receive a PHD in science (physics) in 1876, Dr.
Lloyd Hall, Lewis Latimer, Garrett Morgan, Elbert C.
Robertson, Dr. Ernest Everett Just -- biologist and first
recipient of the NAACP's Spingarn Medal; and in the crafts
and the arts: Thomas Day -- freeborn North Carolinian
cabinetmaker and furniture merchant, Meta Warrick Fuller --
sculptor, and Joshua Johnson or Johnston -- the correct
spelling of his name is one of the lost facts. He was,
however, America's first black portrait painter.
Out of these people came the vanguard of the human rights
and civil rights movements in this country and the spirit
for those movements abroad. When "we shall overcome" is
sung in Ireland, Poland, Japan, South Africa, and England,
those who sing it know they sing an American freedom song --
specifically an Afro-American song. And no one can sing it
without having vivid images of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
marching down America's main streets and highways
challenging America to be what she says she is -- "One
nation indivisible." It has become the international
anthem of a world yet to be born where all people are free
to realize their potential.
The Afro-American has also been a model for other minority
efforts to coax America into realizing the ideals of a
democratic society. The Afro-American experience has been
an instructive one. The prophets of the future tell us we
are moving from a product-oriented economy to one that is
- 4 -
information-saturated. The revolution in communications and
information is already here and it is as significant an
occurrence as the introduction of movable type which lit up
the dark ages. The word, the idea, the book must be the
Afro-American revolution as well. And if knowledge of the
truth will be the power which keeps the Afro-American
surging forward, it will provide the context that keeps
America on course toward justice and equity. The history of
her vision is to be found in those lost chapters.
Speech given February 18, 1983 at Black History Month
Celebration, United States Department of Labor, Washington, D.C.
- 5 -
7/9/91
Quotas
O
Judge Thomas has made clear that he will not consider race
in his constitutional adjudication: "I firmly insist that the
Constitution be interpreted in a colorblind fashion. It is
futile to talk of a colorblind society unless this constitutional
principle is first established. Hence, I emphasize black self-
help, as opposed to racial quotas and other race-conscious legal
devices that only further and deepen the original problem." Wall
St. Journal, 1987 (quoted in Washinton Post, p. A7 (July 2,
1991)).
O
Judge Thomas believes that the use of racial quotas in the
job hiring process is bad public policy. He has stated, for
example, that "America was founded on a philosophy of individual
rights, not group rights," and that racial quotas "only further
and deepen the original problem [of race discrimination]. Wall
St. Journal, p. A12 (July 2, 1991) ; Letter to the Editor, Wall
St. Journal (Feb. 20, 1987)
O
Nor, in Judge Thomas' view, do racial quotas redress the
wrongs at which they are supposedly directed: "The use of
affirmative action, rather than a victim-specific form of relief,
effectively allows employers to shift the cost of the remedy from
themselves to the actual victims of their past discrimination,
who never receive the back pay and jobs to which they are
entitled, and to the qualified persons who will be deprived of an
employment opportunity because someone else was given a
preference under the remedial plan." Thomas, Affirmative Action
Goals and Timetables: Too Tough? Not Tough Enough!, 5 Yale Law
& Policy Review, 402, 406-07 (1987).
O
These policy views of Judge Thomas reflect the feelings of
the vast majority of the American people. As Senator Dole has
succinctly explained: "Quotas are anti-equal opportunity, anti-
individual merit, and in case you have not noticed, about as
popular with the American people these days as Saddam Hussein."
137 Cong. Rec. S8676 (June 26, 1991). Indeed, an NBC News/Wall
Street Journal poll released June 28 showed that 78% of the
public opposes racial preferences in hiring. New York Times, p.
12 (June 30, 1991). And a recent poll of black Americans showed
that, by a margin of 47% to 39%, they agree with Judge Thomas'
view on quotas. USA Today, p. 1 (July 5, 1991).
o
Judge Thomas' opposition to the imposition of quotas as a
matter of public policy is consistent not only with the position
of President Bush, but with the views expressed by leading Senate
Democrats during debates in the 101st and 102nd Congresses.
-- Senator Biden, the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee,
declared that "eliminating quotas is correct. I do not support
quotas. I have not supported quotas." 137 Cong. Rec. S8676
(June 26, 1991).
-- In connection with proposed civil rights legislation
pending in Congress, Senator Simon has explained that "Congress
has no intention of requiring employers to resort to quota
hiring." 136 Cong. Rec. S10084 (July 19, 1990).
-- Senator Kennedy has disavowed any intent to require
employers to hire according to racial quotas, and he has offered
legislation providing that nothing in his proposed civil rights
act "shall be construed to require an employer to adopt hiring or
promotional quotas on the basis of race." 136 Cong. Rec. S9931,
S9945 (July 18, 1990).
-- Senator Mikulski opposes quotas, because she, like Judge
Thomas, "believes that quotas do not solve anything." 136 Cong.
Rec. S9845 (July 17, 1990).
-- Senator Levin has declared his opposition to hiring
quotas. 136 Cong. Rec. S9961 (July 18, 1990).
-- In short, as Republican Senator Specter aptly summarized,
"[e]verybody agrees we do not want quotas." 136 Cong. Rec. S9828
(July 17, 1990).
- 2 -
7/9/91
Law and Order
o Judge Thomas is a tough, anti-crime judge. He takes a common-
sense approach to questions of criminal law and procedure, and
has recognized the practical problems that law enforcement
officers face in combatting crime on the streets.
O Commenting in 1985 on what should be done to solve the
problems faced by America's inner cities, Judge Thomas remarked:
"The first priority is to control the crime. The sections where
the poorest people live aren't really livable. If people can't
go to school, or rear their families, or go to church without
being mugged, how much progress can you expect in a community?
Would you do business in a community that looks like an armed
camp, where the only people who inhabit the streets after dark
are the criminals?" Black America Under the Reagan
Administration: A Symposium of Black Conservatives, The Heritage
Foundation Policy Review (Fall 1985).
o In another context Judge Thomas asserted: "We should be at
least as incensed about the totalitarianism of drug traffickers
and criminals in poor neighborhoods as we are about
totalitarianism in Eastern bloc countries." Why Black Americans
Should Look to Conservative Politics, Heritage Foundation Reports
(June 18, 1987).
O Judge Thomas' opinions in the field of criminal law
demonstrate a deep understanding of the community's interest in
deterring crime. He has resisted efforts to impose unreasonably
burdensome requirements on the police and prosecutors or to
overturn criminal convictions on technicalities not required by
the Constitution, while guarding against infringements of the
fundamental rights of criminal defendants.
O Judge Thomas has affirmed judgments of conviction in all but
one of the seven criminal appeals for which he wrote opinions
while on the Court of Appeals. of the eighteen additional
criminal appeals considered by Judge Thomas, he joined the
majority in upholding sixteen criminal convictions and/or
sentences.
O Judge Thomas has rejected the argument that a conviction for
aiding and abetting narcotics distribution should be reversed
because the defendant's involvement was limited to giving a drug
dealer a ride to the site of the illegal transaction. (United
States V. Poston, 902 F.2d 90 (D.C. Cir. 1990) )
O Judge Thomas has rejected arguments that a trial judge erred
in admitting police testimony as to the contents of a telephone
call, answered by police during a search of a defendant's
apartment, which tended to show that the defendant was dealing in
narcotics. (United States V. Long, 905 F.2d 1572 (D.C. cir.),
cert. denied, 111 S. Ct. 365 (1990)) Similarly, he has upheld
the admission at trial of evidence of a defendant's prior drug-
dealing activity. (United States V. Rogers, 918 F.2d 207 (D.C.
Cir. 1990)).
O In a case involving narcotics dealers who conducted their
illegal trade out of several rooms in a hotel, Judge Thomas
rejected the argument that police had seized evidence against
them in violation of the Fourth Amendment. In response to the
contention that the warrantless search of one of the rooms was
unlawful, Judge Thomas held that it was justified by exigent
circumstances, and noted that, although "the police carefully
investigated the suspicious hotel guests for more than a week and
sought warrants for all the rooms that they could link to
[defendant], the defendant "tried to frustrate the warrant
process by hopping from room to room." Following recent Supreme
Court precedent, he further ruled that evidence seen by the
police during an unlawful search was nonetheless admissible at
trial on the grounds that it was subsequently acquired on the
basis of an independent and lawfully procured search warrant.
(United States V. Halliman, 923 F.2d 873 (D.C. Cir. 1991)
0 Judge Thomas ruled against a defendant who argued that, at his
trial, the judge had improperly instructed the jury as to his
entrapment defense. In so holding, Judge Thomas observed that
"the government [had] introduced overwhelming evidence of
[defendant's] eagerness to sell crack, enough, we are certain,
for the government to have carried the burden of proof it needed
to defeat [defendant's] entrapment defense." (United States V.
Whoie, 925 F.2d 1481 (D.C. Cir. 1991))
O Judge Thomas is not, however, excessively deferential to the
prosecution at the expense of fairness toward criminal
defendants. In United States V. Miller, 904 F.2d 65 (D.C. Cir.
1990), Judge Thomas joined an opinion by Judge Silberman
overturning defendants' conviction for wire fraud on the ground
that the trial court had excluded admissible exculpatory
evidence.
- 2 -
7/9/91
Judicial Restraint
O
When interpreting statutes, Judge Thomas does not substitute
his judgment for that of the legislature. In his confirmation
hearings for his present position, he stated that "the ultimate
goal should always be to apply the will of Congress, the will of
the legislature." "I don't think," Thomas said, "that it's ever
appropriate for a judge to replace the intent of the legislature
with his or her own intent."
O
He has followed this view on the bench. Thus where Congress
prescribed that an agency was to consider environmental factors
but left the ultimate decision up to the agency, Judge Thomas
rejected the notion that it was the court's role to "coax agency
decisionmakers to reach certain results." Citizens Against
Burlington, Inc. V. Busey, 1991 U.S. App. LEXIS 12036 (D.C. Cir.
June 14, 1991).
O
Judge Thomas also recognizes that appellate courts must
respect the roles of juries and trial courts. In ALPO Petfoods,
Inc. V. Ralston Purina Co., 913 F.2d 958, 964 (D.C. Cir. 1990),
Judge Thomas noted that in reviewing the trial court's findings
the court of appeals had "no authority to weigh the evidence
anew." Similarly, on several occasions Judge Thomas has
recognized the "tremendous deference" owed to a jury verdict.
United States V. Long, 905 F.2d 1572, 1576 (D.C. Cir. 1990). See
also United States V. Poston, 902 F.2d 90, 92 (D.C. Cir. 1990).
Yet this is balanced by a willingness to overturn a verdict that
is wholly unsupported by the evidence. Long, 905 F.2d at 1576.
O
Dissenting in a case on the ground that the plaintiffs
lacked standing, Judge Thomas stated: "Federal courts are courts
of limited jurisdiction. When federal jurisdiction does not
exist, federal judges have no authority to exercise it, even if
everyone -- judges, parties, members of the public -- wants the
dispute resolved." Cross-Sound Ferry Services, Inc. V. ICC, 1991
U.S. App. LEXIS 8977, *38 (D.C. Cir. May 10, 1991) (Thomas, J.,
dissenting).
O
Where Congress prohibited the use of collusive joinder to
establish federal court jurisdiction on the basis of a federal
question, but not to establish jurisdiction on the basis of
diversity of citizenship, Thomas wrote that the courts did not
have the authority to prohibit the latter, regardless of the
burden such actions placed on the court's docket. Western
Maryland Ry. V. Harbor Ins. Co., 910 F.2d 960, 964 (D.C. Cir.
1990).
7/9/91
Proper Scope of Questioning
O
One of the distinguishing characteristics of our system of
government is the independence of the judiciary. If judges are
compelled to give their views on issues in advance of their
consideration of a case, that independence is jeopardized. To
see the danger, one need only ask oneself: "What confidence
would I have in the impartiality of a judge who had already
stated his opposition to my case?"
O
It has been universally recognized that questioning a
judicial nominee about specific cases or issues that might come
before him or her in a judicial capacity is improper.
O
As Judge Thomas is both a nominee for a seat on the Supreme
Court and a sitting federal judge, he must refrain from comment
both about issues that might come before the Supreme Court or
before the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
o
As Chairman Biden explained in statements prior to the
confirmation hearings of Justice Souter, the Senate hearings must
not "trespass" on the impartiality of judicial officers, Opening
Statement, Tr. at 7, and for this reason three lines of
investigation are improper:
1. Asking the nominee for "promises," "assurances" or
"commitments as to how [he or she] would vote on any
specific case." 136 Cong. Rec. S12780 (daily ed. Sept.
11, 1990) ; Opening Statement, Tr. at 4.
2. Asking questions "so as to apply a litmus test or a
checklist as to the views of the nominee." 136 Cong.
Rec. S12780 (daily ed. Sept. 11, 1990).
3. Asking questions that would "pry into [the nominee's]
personal views on publicly debated issues." Opening
Statement, Tr. at 4.
O
Senator Specter also recognized that the independence of the
judiciary is the principle reason for exercising restraint in
questioning:
Retention of an independent judiciary requires
restraint by the public and Senators in asking the
nominee's ultimate views. By not asking such
questions, the Senate will be reinforcing the basic
doctrine of separation of powers. 136 Cong. Rec.
S12777 (daily ed. Sept. 11, 1990).
- 1 -
O
Thus Senator Specter "urged" his colleagues that "it is not
appropriate to ask the ultimate question as to what Judge Souter
will do on reversing or sustaining Roe versus Wade.' 136 Cong.
Rec. at S12777 (daily ed. Sept. 11, 1990).
O
Senator Simon recently commented that asking a nominee to
state a position on the disposition of a particular case is
"inappropriate." "You shouldn't have a justice on the bench,
hearing a case, wondering what he told a Senate judiciary
committee at some time in the past," Senator Simon stated.
"Friends, foes hunting Thomas' 'paper trail," Chicago Tribune
1:1 (July 4, 1991).
O
In his confirmation hearings, Justice Marshall repeatedly
refused to answer questions asked by Senator McCellan regarding
Miranda V. Arizona and Escobedo V. Illinois, which were, of
course, two important and controversial 5-4 decisions that had
just been rendered by a narrowly and deeply divided Supreme
Court. Hearings before the Committee on the Judiciary, United
States Senate, on the Nomination of Thurgood Marshall, of New
York, to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the
United States, 90th Cong., 1st Sess. at 8-14 (1967). In response
to a direct question concerning Miranda, Justice Marshall
replied: "I am not saying whether I disagree with [Miranda] or
not, because I am going to be called to pass upon it. There is
no question about it, Senator. These cases are coming to the
Supreme Court." Id. at 9.
O Later, after he repeatedly refused to answer questions posed
by Senator Ervin regarding the Fifth Amendment, Justice Marshall
asserted: "I do not think you want me to be in the position of
giving you a statement on the fifth amendment, and then, if I am
confirmed and sit on the Court, when a fifth amendment case comes
up, I will have to disqualify myself.
But
I
think
it
would
be wrong for me to give that opinion at this time. When the case
comes before the Court, that will be the time." Id. at 53.
O
Justice Marshall summarized his position thus: "My position
is, which in every hearing I have gone over is the same, that a
person who is up for confirmation for Justice of the Supreme
Court deems it inappropriate to comment on matters which will
come before him as a Justice." Id. at 55.
O
Justice Brennan also resisted answering questions posed by
Senator McCarthy concerning whether communism was a political
party or a conspiracy, stating that he had "an obligation not to
discuss any issues that are touched upon in cases before the
Court." Hearings before the Committee on the Judiciary, United
States Senate, on the Nomination of William Joseph Brennan,
Junior, of New Jersey, to be Associate Justice of the Supreme
Court of the United States, 85th Cong., 1st Sess. at 20 (1957).
[NOTE: At the time of his confirmation hearings, Justice Brennan
- 2 -
was already sitting as a Justice on the Court by virtue of a
recess appointment.]
O
A federal statute requires a judge or justice to recuse
himself or herself "in any proceeding in which his impartiality
might reasonably be questioned." 28 U.S.C. § 455 (a). The
statute further requires the judge or justice to recuse "[w]here
he has
expressed an opinion concerning the merits of the
particular case in controversy." 28 U.S.C. § 455 (b) (3).
0
Canon 5 (A) (3) of the ABA's Code of Judicial Conduct
provides:
A candidate for judicial office:
* * *
(d) shall not:
* * *
(ii) make statements that commit or appear to commit
the candidate with respect to cases, controversies or
issues that are likely to come before the court.
The commentary to this section makes clear that it "applies to
any statement made in the process of securing judicial office,
such as statements to
legislative bodies confirming
appointment."
O
Speaking at the ABA's annual convention in August of 1990,
Justice Stevens warned that the Senate confirmation process could
erode judicial independence if nominees are asked how they would
vote on specific issues. Justice Stevens commented: "You really
wouldn't want a judge who would say in advance how he or she
would vote. Very important values are at stake in maintaining
the independence of the nominee as he or she goes through the
confirmation process." Reported in Newsday, p.13 (Aug. 8, 1990).
O
Former Chief Justice Burger has commented: "To expect a
nominee to make commitments, or even to engage in substantive
discussion of a case yet unseen, borders on the preposterous."
Parade Magazine (Sept. 16, 1990), quoted in PR Newswire (Sept.
13, 1990).
O
Lloyd N. Cutler, former Counsel to President Carter, has
asserted that "it is vital to the integrity of the process that
neither they [the President and the Senate] nor the rest of us
insist on knowing in advance how a new justice is going to vote
in a particular case. " "In Justices, Mystery Is Essential
.", Washington Post A31 (August 2, 1990). Mr. Cutler also
cited President Lincoln, who wrote in a letter to a friend: "We
cannot ask a man what he will do, and if we should, and he should
answer us, we should despise him for it." [NOTE: The next
sentence in Lincoln's letter is: "Therefore, we must take a man
whose opinions are known." Lincoln was not speaking in
- 3 -
hypothetical terms. The Supreme Court was preparing to hear the
Legal Tender Cases, which would decide the constitutionality of a
civil war statute authorizing the Treasury to print paper money.
The statute was immensely important to the financing of the war.
Lincoln eventually picked his Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon
P. Chase, who had drafted the statute and urged Congress to enact
it. After his confirmation, Justice Chase cast the deciding vote
and wrote the opinion striking down the Legal Tender Act as
unconstitutional.]
0 Governor Cuomo has also recognized: "It is not appropriate
to ask a judge or a candidate for the judgeship to tell you in
advance how he's going to decide a case." "Souter and Senate:
How Far Should Questions Go?", New York Times A16, col. 1 (July
26, 1990).
O
The Washington Times has commented: "Judge Thomas is likely
to refrain, as is only proper, from commenting on his personal
and religious views and on cases likely to come before the
Supreme Court." "The personal views of Clarence Thomas,"
Washington Times G2 (July 9, 1991).
- 4 -
7/9/91
Qualified for the Court: Judge Thomas and His Predecessors
Judge Clarence Thomas is highly qualified to serve on the
United States Supreme Court. His personal achievement in the
face of adversity is an embodiment of the American dream. Even
more importantly, his professional career has fully prepared him
to serve on the Supreme Court. As explained below, his academic
and career record compare favorably with those of many past
members of the Court at the time of their nomination.
Judge Thomas' academic record is impressive. He graduated
from Holy Cross College in 1971, and from Yale Law School in
1974. In addition to excelling academically during his college
and law school days, Judge Thomas evinced an early commitment to
public service. While at Holy Cross, he ran a free breakfast
program for black schoolchildren and tutored in the local
schools. During two of his summers at Yale, Judge Thomas worked
for New Haven Legal Assistance to provide legal aid to the
disadvantaged.
Since his graduation from Yale Law School, Judge Thomas has
proven his legal skills in a variety of positions in government
and the private sector. In his first year out of law school, he
managed an extensive litigation practice as an Assistant Attorney
General in Missouri. During his 2-1/2 years in that position,
Judge Thomas was responsible for several hundred court cases at
both the trial and appellate levels. His excellent performance
in this office quickly earned him the respect and friendship of
his boss, then-Attorney General John Danforth.
Upon leaving the Missouri Attorney General's office, Judge
Thomas took a position as counsel to the Monsanto Company. In
that capacity, he advised corporate managers on a variety of
issues, with a particular emphasis on environmental matters.
In 1979, John Danforth prevailed on Clarence Thomas to join
him, this time as a member of Danforth's Senate staff. Judge
Thomas was given responsibility for matters involving the
environment, energy, public works, and the Department of
Interior.
In 1981, President Reagan appointed Clarence Thomas to be
Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the Department of
Education. In that position, he supervised the office that is
responsible for enforcing the anti-discrimination laws in
educational institutions which receive federal financial
assistance.
Judge Thomas' second presidential appointment came barely a
year later, when President Reagan nominated him to be the
Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the
agency charged with enforcing federal laws against discrimination
- 2 -
in the workplace. Judge Thomas' record during his eight years of
service at the EEOC was widely praised. Frank Quevado, former
Chairman of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education
Fund, testified in 1990 that Judge Thomas "worked hard to rebuild
an agency which, though possessing strong moral leadership
historically, had suffered from an inability to effectively carry
out its responsibilities to individual victims of discrimination
" The Vice Chair of the EEOC, R. Gaull Silberman, has
observed that "[u]nder Clarence's leadership, the agency found
its mission as a law enforcement agency and it attained a
credibility that it had never had before." In 1987, the
Washington Post editorialized that "[u]nder the quiet but
persistent leadership of Chairman Clarence Thomas, the number of
cases processed has gone from 50,935 in fiscal 1982 to 66,305 [in
1986]. In short, as Fred W. Alvarez, a San Francisco labor
attorney who worked under Judge Thomas at the EEOC, put it, "[h]e
totally turned around the management and reputation [of] EEOC
"
Judge Thomas' third Presidential appointment came in 1990
when President Bush appointed him to be a judge of the United
States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Judge Thomas has participated in over 140 decisions and has
authored opinions on such diverse issues as criminal procedure,
antitrust law, and the powers of federal agencies. His work on
that court has been widely praised.
- 3 -
Perhaps no evaluation is more accurate than that of his
judicial colleagues on the D.C. Circuit. Judge Abner Mikva says
"[h]e's been a very good colleague. I have nothing but praise
for his collegiality -- in conference, in social relationships,
and in all the things that judges do." Another judge on the
court says Thomas "has very directed questions at oral argument,
and he has very directed, focused questions in conference." This
judge also reported that Thomas is "extremely well prepared" for
argument and conference. Other judicial colleagues have said
that he is "a wonderful person to deal with," "very open," "not
pretentious," and "warm and personable." Upon learning of Judge
Thomas' nomination, Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson said: "I'm so
excited, so very happy for Judge Thomas, for the Supreme Court,
and for the country. He is, to me, the living embodiment of the
American dream fulfilled. He's accomplished so much, and he has
come from a background of deprivation and poverty and
discrimination, and he has just triumphed."
Judge Thomas' experience clearly qualifies him for a seat on
the Supreme Court. The high level of his qualifications may be
illustrated by comparing his professional background with that of
many who have served as Justices of the Supreme Court in this
century and earlier. At age 43, seventeen years after his
graduation from Yale Law School, Judge Thomas is in the prime of
his career. Not surprisingly, a number of previous nominees to
- 4 -
the Supreme Court have been selected at approximately the same
stage in their lives. Justice William O. Douglas, for example,
was nominated to the Court by President Roosevelt at the age of
40, when he was only fourteen years out of law school. Justice
Douglas' professional career consisted principally of six years
as a law school professor and five years in public service as a
member of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Justice Byron
R. White was appointed to the Court by President Kennedy at the
age of 44, sixteen years after his graduation from Yale Law
School. Justice Potter Stewart was also 44 years old at the time
of his nomination. One of the greatest Justices in our Nation's
history, Joseph Story, was appointed to the Court at the age of
32, only ten years after he was admitted to the Massachusetts
bar.
Having served on what many regard as the second highest
court in the land, the United States Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia Circuit, Judge Thomas has ample judicial
experience to prepare him for the Court. As noted above, Judge
Thomas has already participated in over 140 decisions in the
Court of Appeals on a wide range of issues. Moreover, prior
judicial service is hardly a prerequisite for appointment to the
Supreme Court. Two members of the current Court, Chief Justice
William Rehnquist and Justice Byron White, had no judicial
experience before joining the Court. The same can be said of a
number of other Justices who served with distinction in this
- 5 -
century, including Chief Justices Warren, Stone, and Hughes, and
Justices Brandeis, Douglas, Frankfurter, and Powell. Even the
great Chief Justice, John Marshall, had no judicial experience
before joining the Supreme Court at age 45.
Few Justices of the Supreme Court have had governmental
experience -- at both the state and federal level -- equal to
that of Judge Thomas. During his career, Judge Thomas has spent
two years in state government in Missouri and eight years in the
Executive Branch of the federal government. In a day and age
where a great number of cases to come before the Supreme Court
involve challenges to the actions of state or federal
governments, insight into the operation of government gained
through such experience is invaluable for a Justice of the
Supreme Court.
There obviously is no single appropriate resume for a
nominee to the United States Supreme Court. Past Justices have
displayed an array of professional backgrounds, ranging from
extensive private practice of law to substantial service in the
public sector. When viewed in relation to his predecessors,
there should be no doubt that Judge Thomas possesses the
professional experience required for service on the Supreme
Court. Judge Thomas' career to date reflects an excellence and
diversity that qualify him to take a seat on our highest Court.
- 6 -
7/9/91
Environmental Law
O While sitting on the Court of Appeals, Judge Thomas enforced
the environmental protection laws but refused to create
additional procedures that would serve only to generate
meaningless red tape and curtail economic efficiency.
O In Citizens Against Burlington, Inc. V. Busey, 1991 U.S. App.
LEXIS 12036 (June 14, 1991), Judge Thomas required an agency to
follow the regulations of the Council on Environmental Quality.
A contractor for the agency had prepared an environmental impact
statement without executing a disclosure form designed to detect
potentially disqualifying conflicts of interest. The agency
assured the petitioners in the case that the contractor "does not
have an undisclosed stake in the project that would potentially
disqualify it." Id. at *38. Judge Thomas stated that such "ipse
dixit does not reassure us" and ordered the agency to have the
contractor execute the disclosure form and to take "prompt[]'
remedial measures if a conflict appeared. Id. at *38-*39.
O Judge Thomas recognizes the scope that Congress has chosen for
the environmental statutes and enforces the statutes within that
scope. For example, while some commentators have hailed the NEPA
as "an environmentalist Magna Carta," Judge Thomas has observed
with respect to the NEPA's purpose:
[I] nstead of ordering, say, that deforested land be
reforested, Congress chose to make the NEPA procedural.
Just as NEPA is not a green Magna Carta, federal
judges are not the barons at Runnymede. Because the
statute directs agencies only to look hard at the
environmental effects of their decisions, and not to
take one type of action or another, federal judges
correspondingly enforce the statute by ensuring that
agencies comply with the NEPA's procedures, and not by
trying to coax agency decisionmakers to reach certain
results.
Citizens Against Burlington, 1991 U.S. App. LEXIS 12036 at *9.
o Judge Thomas will not overrule an agency on a matter within
the agency's expertise where the agency has "thought hard about
[the] appropriate factors." Citizens Against Burlington, 1991
U.S. App. LEXIS 12036 at *23. Thus, in Citizens Against
Burlington, he refused to overturn the FAA's reasonable judgment
as to the scope of alternatives to the FAA's approving a proposed
airport expansion. The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969
(NEPA) requires agencies to consider "alternatives to the
proposed action, but to determine such alternatives, omeone
has to define the purpose of the agency action." Id. at *27.
This choice was left in the first instance to the agency itself,
subject to a reasonableness review by the federal court.
QUOTES FROM CLARENCE THOMAS
On Civil Rights:
I wasn't alone. There are those of you here today who have my
memories -- who knew the same hurt, and who have shared the same
satisfaction in seeing the changes brought about by the Civil
Rights movement.
That movement has brought about enormous societal changes in the
United States. To name just a few, there has been a host of civil
rights laws, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964; dual public
school systems were eliminated; fair housing laws were passed;
colleges and universities once closed to minorities opened their
doors; and equal employment laws were passed. In short, measures
affecting every one of the fundamental aspects of daily life --
housing, jobs, education, the right to participate in a democratic
government -- were enacted.
These new laws changed the entire way of life for many Americans.
They continue to do so. And they are basic to the very functioning
of our system of government.
I believe in the vigorous enforcement of civil rights laws and have
pledged to do everything I can to pursue such enforcement by the
EEOC. There are some who claim that this administration has turned
its back on civil rights enforcement, that it has no civil rights
policy, that it is satisfied to watch the clock get turned back in
civil rights areas. Those who make this claim are wrong. I will
have no part in turning back the clock, or in seeing past progress
undermined by current laxness.
June 3, 1982
D.C. Chapter of the Industrial
Relations Research Association
REVISED 7-10-91
On the NAACP:
The NAACP has a history of which we can all be proud. From its
inception in 1909 til today, the work this organization has done
in the area of civil rights is unmatched by any other such group.
At each turn in the development of blacks in this country, the
NAACP has been there to meet the many challenges. In the past,
those challenges ranged from voter registration drives to fighting
injustices in the legal system. In each situation the NAACP has
fought hard and has won many battles. But the battles are not
over. There are many still to be fought and hopefully many will
be won. But winning these battles will require new strategies and
creative thinking on your part. The name "The Crisis", selected
as the name of the official publication of the NAACP, was taken
from a poem "The Present Crisis", written by James Russell Lowell.
The words are as applicable to the problems of today as they were
in 1909. Three lines from that poem are especially appropriate
today:
New occasions teach new duties: Time makes ancient
good uncouth;
They must upward still, and onward, who would keep
abreast of truth;
Lo before us gleam her camp-fires! We ourselves
must Pilgrims be.
At the EEOC, we recognize our "new duties" and we are beginning to
develop these new strategies and to truly fulfill our role as
protectors of the rights of all. Our role is that of federal
enforcer. The role of the NAACP, of course, is that of advocate.
I realize, that as an advocate for our race, our efforts have been
unsurpassed. As a true advocate, it is imperative that you carry
the same energy you have used in the past into the 1980's to meet
the new challenges. However, the new challenges require more than
the energy of the past. The new challenges require you to be
"Pilgrims" as you face the future. While the NAACP's history is
one of countless accomplishments, you can not afford to rest on
that history.
October 23, 1982
Maryland Conference of NAACP
On Civil Rights:
It has been nearly nineteen years since Title VII was incorporated
in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, since equal employment opportunity
became the law of the land. Since those days when we, who had been
locked out of the American dream for centuries, rejoiced, knowing
hope, at last, was on the way.
And, the federal government must continue to pave the way in civil
rights. The federal government has always had both a profound
moral obligation and a constitutional duty to protect individual
rights. Increasingly that ideal has gained the force of the law.
But, in the words of Frederick Douglass, "Power concedes nothing
without a demand." And, even the government did not move
decisively until the thunderous demand of protest against injustice
could, no longer, be ignored.
For in one of the most compelling and glorious events in this
nation's history, a vast cross-section of this nation's population
was on the march -- a march for justice a march to turn this
nation from its schizophrenic posture between its stated beliefs,
the ideals on which it was founded, and the reality of its
existence. A nation, founded on the principles of liberty and
justice, began to see that its anthems and credos had a hollow
ring. A nation which had averted its eyes by playing hide and seek
with the stranger knocking at the door. And, as the poet Dylan
says, "He was wearing the clothes that you once wore."
A nation long deaf to the pleas of the impoverished heard the sound
of marching feet, marching to Birmingham, to Selma, to Jackson.
It heard that the bank of liberty had, as Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. said, "insufficient funds" to right the wrongs America had
heaped upon its minority citizens.
The eyes of the world turned on America. No longer could the
champion of freedom and justice abroad continue to be the bastion
of separate but equal at home. No longer could people who, for 300
years, had contributed mightily to the development of this nation
be denied a full partnership in its destiny. No longer would this
country be allowed to turn its back on so many among us who had
suffered so long from the denial of the American dream.
The spirit of the Declaration of Independence, reborn in the civil
rights movement, became embodied in the laws of the land. And the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was created to make certain
these laws would be enforced.
December 6, 1983
EEOC Seminar
Pittsburgh, PA
On Civil Rights:
My grandparents, who raised me, are perfect examples of what
discrimination can do
Early in life, as I watched them toil
away, I realized that their efforts would be seriously impeded by
something beyond their control -- racial discrimination. They had
overcome the lack of formal education, the Great Depression and an
assortment of other adversities. But, no matter what efforts they
made race was a roadblock to taking full advantage of the benefits
of this country. As a result of living through this experience and
other experiences, I have strong views about civil rights.
Many of us have walked through doors opened by the civil rights
leaders, now you must see that others do the same. As individuals
who have received the benefit of an education which was probably
denied your fathers and mothers, and in some cases sisters and
brothers, you must devise a plan for a civil rights movement for
the 1980s.
1983
Integrated Education
Volume 21
So again I find myself challenging you. This time with the words
of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. "It is time for the Negro 'haves'
to join hands with the 'have-nots' and, with compassion, journey
into the other country of hurt and denial. It is time for the
Negro
middle class to rise up from its stool of indifference, to retreat
from its flight into unreality and to bring its full resources -
- its heart, its mind and its checkbook -- to the aid of the less
fortunate brother."
August 5, 1983
Inroads, Inc.
Knoxville, TN.
On Discrimination:
Through my radical days, through my days at New Haven Legal
Assistance, through the summer working under a grant from the Law
Student's Civil Rights Research Council, I did not forget. Through
Holy Cross and Yale, I did not forget. As Assistant Attorney
General and Assistant Secretary, I did not forget. As Chairman of
the EEOC, I cannot and will not forget. I can never forget the
agony of discrimination -- the humiliation of prejudice.
Like many blacks, I have lived without indoor plumbing; without
electricity; without adequate heating. I have eaten Kelloggs Corn
Flakes with water and Pet Milk. I have eaten the edges trimmed
from breads used to make "hors d'oeuvres" for white people. I was
born and raised in a segregated society -- separate libraries,
movies, water fountains, separate parks.
I have mowed lawns, plowed, and cut hay, stripped fodder, cleaned
sewers, ground sugar cane and made syrup. These were things my
grandfather told me I had to learn to survive. But he also
imparted values which I retain to this day. Among them is honesty.
Another is personal integrity. I have no intention of sacrificing
my principles to accommodate others or because it would be
expedient.
I am an American -- a black American. Nothing hurts me so much as
the sufferings of my race. I firmly believe that the sufferings
and the problems we face are so great that all who recognize them
must look for solutions. We need new ideas in our arsenal of
weapons to fight discrimination. At no time must we allow
ourselves to believe that we must agree on every issue. We are not
robots -- we are a creative, resilient race. Just as we are
different we have different ideas and different opinions.
We cannot -- no, we must not believe that we must all think alike
anymore than we believe we all look alike. And we must not give
up the struggle.
March 24, 1984
Holy Cross College
On Brown V. Board of Education:
It has now been thirty years since the Supreme Court, for the first
time since Reconstruction, began to transfer into reality the creed
of our Declaration of Independence. It has been thirty years since
the Supreme Court took that first brave but fragile step into
making America truly one nation -- a nation bound and governed by
one set of laws for all. It has been thirty years since the much
heralded soul of this nation, first crept from beneath the veneer
of hypocrisy. Three decades ago, nine men of the law moved to make
the creed of America reality for all.
Although the Brown decision over-turned the Plessy V. Ferguson
doctrine of "separate but equal" in the area of education only, it
marked the beginning of an era of at least an overt consensus that
segregation and racial injustice were illegal and morally wrong -
- a consensus that opened the floodgates to an era of reform
considered by many to be the second Reconstruction.
April 23, 1984
Temple University
School of Law
On Segregation:
Was it the great migration with its sudden concentration of blacks
in the urban North and the new beginning of black political
awareness that had begotten a change in the name of the political
game?
Or the surge of pride which black folks felt as they huddled around
their ghetto radios to hear Joe Louis preaching equality with his
fists, or hear Jesse Owens humbling Hitler with his feet?
Was it A. Phillip Randolph, mobilizing 100,000 blacks ready to
march on Washington in 1941 -- and FDR hurriedly signing Executive
Order 8802 banning discrimination in war industries and
apprenticeship programs?
Or the 99th Pursuit Squadron, trained in segregated units at
Tuskegee, flying like demons in the death struggle high over Italy?
or black soldiers storming up beaches called Anzio and Normandy?
Was it Rosa Parks who said "No" she wouldn't move; and Daisy Bates
who said "Yes", black children would go to Central High School?
Or the arrival of black leaders at the United Nations building in
New York and on Embassy Row in Washington -- men like
Kwame N'Krumah and Sekou Toure -- who blew forever the myth of
Mumbo Jumbo, King of the Congo?
Or the three men who had been the black man's embodiment of
Blitzkrieg -- the most phenomenal legal brains ever combined in one
century for the onslaught against injustice -- Charles Houston,
William Hastie, Thurgood Marshall?
Was it Martin Luther King and Malcolm X who posed the question of
evolution or revolution?
Or a group of students who said, "We've had enough. I mean, what's
so sacred about a sandwich, Jack?"
Or men named Warren, Frankfurter, Black, Douglas who read the Bill
of Rights and believed?
But whatever -- it was on -- in the streets, at the lunch counters,
on the buses. And though the North tried hard to keep attention
focused on the South, it was as plain as a ghetto that Messrs.
Mason and Dixon had not defined the boundaries of ugliness and
injustice.
Brown marked the turn in the tide. If segregation in education was
unlawful, was it legal in public accommodations, in employment, in
housing? The world waited to hear America's answer.
White America, for the first time since the Republican domination
of Reconstruction was being forced to deal with the unjust plight
of its "invisible" race. Blacks and their often newly-found white
allies stormed the Jericho of segregation -- and the walls came
tumbling down.
April 7 1984
Yale Law School
Black Law Students
Association Conference
On Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:
Last month, we celebrated the birthday of a man who articulated and
dramatized what my day-to-day heroes taught us. Holidays such as
Dr. King's birthday should be occasions when we can see what we
have in common with each other, rather than dwell on what divides
us.
Martin Luther King, the man who spoke of having a dream, reflected
that the Declaration of Independence speaks of not some men, but
of all men.
Dr. King described the Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution as "a promissory note to which every American was to
fall heir.' But despite the bad check America had written black
Americans, Dr. King refused to believe that the "Bank of Justice"
was bankrupt. He knew that the resources of America were great.
He imagined a nation where his children would be judged. not "by the
color of their skin but by the content of their character" and that
this was "deeply rooted in the American dream."
I still believe that today. And the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission strives to bring our reality closer to that dream.
March 1, 1988
Presidential Classroom for
Young Americans
QUOTES FROM CLARENCE THOMAS
On Civil Rights:
I wasn't alone. There are those of you here today who have my
memories -- who knew the same hurt, and who have shared the same
satisfaction in seeing the changes brought about by the Civil
Rights movement.
That movement has brought about enormous societal changes in the
United States. To name just a few, there has been a host of civil
rights laws, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964; dual public
school systems were eliminated; fair housing laws were passed;
colleges and universities once closed to minorities opened their
doors; and equal employment laws were passed. In short, measures
affecting every one of the fundamental aspects of daily life --
housing, jobs, education, the right to participate in a democratic
government -- were enacted.
These new laws changed the entire way of life for many Americans.
They continue to do so. And they are basic to the very functioning
of our system of government.
I believe in the vigorous enforcement of civil rights laws and have
pledged to do everything I can to pursue such enforcement by the
EEOC. There are some who claim that this administration has turned
its back on civil rights enforcement, that it has no civil rights
policy, that it is satisfied to watch the clock get turned back in
civil rights areas. Those who make this claim are wrong. I will
have no part in turning back the clock, or in seeing past progress
undermined by current laxness.
June 3, 1982
D.C. Chapter of the Industrial
Relations Research Association
On the NAACP:
The NAACP has a history of which we can all be proud. From its
inception in 1909 till today, the work this organization has done
in the area of civil rights is unmatched by any other such group.
At each turn in the development of blacks in this country, the
NAACP has been there to meet the many challenges. In the past,
those challenges ranged from voter registration drives to fighting
injustices in the legal system. In each situation the NAACP has
fought hard and has won many battles. But the battles are not
over. There are many still to be fought and hopefully many will
be won. But winning these battles will require new strategies and
creative thinking on your part. The name "The Crisis", selected
as the name of the official publication of the NAACP, was taken
from a poem "The Present Crisis", written by James Russell Lowell.
The words are as applicable to the problems of today as they were
in 1909. Three lines from that poem are especially appropriate
today:
New occasions teach new duties: Time makes ancient
good uncouth;
They must upward still, and onward, who would keep
abreast of truth;
Lo before us gleam her camp-fires! We ourselves
must Pilgrims be.
At the EEOC, we recognize our "new duties" and we are beginning to
develop these new strategies and to truly fulfill our role as
protectors of the rights of all. Our role is that of federal
enforcer. The role of the NAACP, of course, is that of advocate.
I realize, that as an advocate for our race, our efforts have been
unsurpassed. As a true advocate, it is imperative that you carry
the same energy you have used in the past into the 1980's to meet
the new challenges. However, the new challenges require more than
the energy of the past. The new challenges require you to be
"Pilgrims" as you face the future. While the NAACP's history is
one of countess accomplishments, you can not afford to rest on that
history.
October 23, 1982
Maryland Conference of NAACP
On Civil Rights:
It has been nearly nineteen years since Title VII was incorporated
in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, since equal employment opportunity
became the law of the land. Since those days when we, who had been
locked out of the American dream for centuries, rejoiced, knowing
hope, at last, was on the way.
And, the federal government must continue to pave the way in civil
rights. The federal government has always had both a profound
moral obligation and a constitutional duty to protect individual
rights. Increasingly that ideal has gained the force of the law.
But, in the words of Frederick Douglas, "Power concedes nothing
with a demand." And, even the government did not move decisively
until the thunderous demand of protest against injustice could, no
longer, be ignored.
For in one of the most compelling and glorious events in this
nation's history, a vast cross-section of this nation's population
was on the march -- a march for justice -- a march to turn this
national from its schizophrenic posture between its stated beliefs,
the ideals on which it was founded, and the reality of its
existence. A nation, founded on the principles of liberty and
justice, began to see that its anthems and credos had a hollow
ring. A nation which had averted its eyes by playing hide and seek
with the stranger knocking at the door. And, as the poet Dylan
says, "He was wearing the clothes that you once wore."
A nation long deaf to the pleas of the impoverished heard the sound
of marching feet, marching to Birmingham, to Selma, to Jackson.
It heard that the bank of liberty had, as Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. said, "insufficient funds" to right the wrongs America had
heaped upon its minority citizens.
The eyes of the world turned on America. No longer could the
champion of freedom and justice abroad continue to be the bastion
of separate but equal at home. No longer could people who, for 300
years, had contributed mightily to the development of this nation
be denied a full partnership in its destiny. No longer would this
country be allowed to turn its back on so many among us who had
suffered so long from the denial of the American dream.
The spirit of the Declaration of Independence, reborn in the civil
rights movement, became embodied in the laws of the land. And the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was created to make certain
these laws would be enforced.
December 6, 1983
EEOC Seminar
Pittsburgh, PA
On Civil Rights:
My grandparents, who raised me, are perfect examples of what
discrimination can do
Early in life, as I watched them toil
away, I realized that their efforts would be seriously impeded by
something beyond their control -- racial discrimination. They had
overcome the lack of formal education, the Great Depression and an
assortment of other adversities. But, no matter what efforts they
made race was a roadblock to taking full advantage of the benefits
of this country. As a result of living through this experience and
other experiences, I have strong views about civil rights.
Many of us have walked through doors opened by the civil rights
leaders, now you must see that others do the same. As individuals
who have received the benefit of an education which was probably
denied your fathers and mothers, and in some cases sisters and
brothers, you must devise a plan for a civil rights movement for
the 1980s
1983
Integrated Education
Volume 21
So again I find myself challenging you. This time with the words
of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. "It is time for the Negro haves to
join hands with the 'have-nots' and, with compassion, journey into
the other country of hurt and denial. It is time for the Negro
middle class to rise up from its stool of indifference, to retreat
from its flight into unreality and to bring its full resources -
- its heart, its mind and its checkbook -- to the aid of the less
fortunate brother."
August 5, 1983
Inroads, Inc.
Knoxville, TN.
On Discrimination:
Through my radical days, through my days at New Haven Legal
Assistance, through the summer working under a grant from the Law
Student's Civil Rights Research Council, I did not forget. Through
Holy Cross and Yale, I did not forget. As Assistant Attorney
General and Assistant Secretary, I did not forget. As Chairman of
the EEOC, I cannot and will not forget. I can never forget the
agony of discrimination -- the humiliation of prejudice.
Like many blacks, I have lived without indoor plumbing; without
electricity; without adequate heating. I have eaten Kelloggs Corn
Flakes with water and Pet Milk. I have eaten the edges trimmed
from breads used to make "hors d'oeuvres" for white people. I was
born and raised in a segregated society -- separate libraries,
movies, water fountains, separate parks.
I have mowed lawns, plowed, and cut hay, stripped fodder, cleaned
sewers, ground sugar cane and made syrup. These were things my
grandfather told me I had to learn to survive. But he also
imparted values which I retain to this day. Among them is honesty.
Another is personal integrity. I have no intention of sacrificing
my principles to accommodate others or because it would be
expedient.
I am an American -- a black American. Nothing hurts me so much as
the sufferings of my race. I firmly believe that the sufferings
and the problems we face are so great that all who recognize them
must look for solutions. We need new ideas in our arsenal of
weapons to fight discrimination. At no time must we allow
ourselves to believe that we must agree on every issue. We are not
robots -- we are a creative, resilient race. Just as we are
different we have different ideas and different opinions.
We cannot -- no, we must not believe that we must all think alike
anymore than we believe we all look alike. And we must not give
up the struggle.
March 24, 1984
Holy Cross College
On Brown V. Board of Education:
It has now been thirty years since the Supreme Court, for the first
time since Reconstruction, began to transfer into reality the creed
of our Declaration of Independence. It has been thirty years since
the Supreme Court took that first brave but fragile step into
making America truly one nation -- a nation bound and governed by
one set of laws for all. It has been thirty years since the much
heralded soul of this nation, first crept from beneath the veneer
of hypocrisy. Three decades ago, nine men of the law moved to make
the creed of America reality for all.
Although the Brown decision over-turned the Plessy V. Ferguson
doctrine of "separate but equal" in the area of education only, it
marked the beginning of an era of at least an overt consensus that
segregation and racial injustice were illegal and morally wrong -
- a consensus that opened the floodgates to an era of reform
considered by many to be the second reconstruction.
April 23, 1984
Temple University
School of Law
On Segregation:
Was it the great migration with its sudden concentration of blacks
in the urban North and the new beginning of black political
awareness that had begotten a change in the name of the political
game?
Or the surge of pride which black folks felt as they huddled around
their ghetto radios to hear Joe Louis preaching equality with his
fists, or hear Jesse Owens humbling Hitler with his feet?
Was it A. Phillip Randolph, mobilizing 100,000 blacks ready to
march on Washington in 1941 -- and FDR hurriedly signing Executive
Order 8802 banning discrimination in war industries and
apprenticeship programs?
Or the 99th Pursuit Squadron, trained in segregated units to
Tuskegee, flying like demons in the death struggle high over Italy?
or black soldiers storming up beaches called Anzio and Normandy?
Was it Rosa Parks who said "No" she wouldn't move; and Daisy Bates
who said "Yes", black children would go to Central High School?
Or the arrival of black leaders at the United Nations building in
New York and on Embassy Row in Washington -- men like
Kwame N'Krumah and Sekou Toure -- who blew forever the myth of
Mumbo Jumbo, King of the Congo?
Or the three men who had been the black man's embodiment of
Blitzkrieg -- the most phenomenal legal brains ever combined in one
century for the on slaught against injustice -- Charles Houston,
William Hastie, Thurgood Marshall?
Was it Martin Luther King and Malcolm X who posed the question of
evolution or revolution?
Or a group of students who said, "We've had enough. I mean, what's
so sacred about a sandwich, Jack?"
Or men named Warren, Frankfurter, Black, Douglas who read the Bill
of Rights and believed?
But whatever -- it was on -- in the streets, at the lunch counters,
on the buses. And though the North tried hard to keep attention
focused on the South, it was as plain as a ghetto that Messrs.
Mason and Dixon had not defined the boundaries of ugliness and
injustice.
Brown marked the turn in the tide. If segregation in education was
unlawful, was it legal in public accommodations, in employment, in
housing? The world waited to hear America's answer.
White America, for the first time since the Republican domination
of Reconstruction was being forced to deal with the unjust plight
of its "invisible" race. Blacks and their often newly-found white
allies stormed the Jericho of segregation -- and the walls came
tumbling down.
April 7 1984
Yale Law School
Black Law Students
Association Conference
On Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:
Last month, we celebrated the birthday of a man who articulated and
dramatized what my day-to-day heroes taught us. Holidays such as
Dr. King's birthday should be occasions when we can see what we
have in common with each other, rather than dwell on what divides
us.
Martin Luther King, the man who spoke of having a dream, reflected
that the Declaration of Independence speaks of not some men, but
of all men.
Dr. King described the Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution as "a promissory note to which every American was to
fall heir." But despite the bad check America had written black
Americans, Dr. King refused to believe that the "Bank of Justice"
was bankrupt. He knew that the resources of America were great.
He imagined a nation where his children would be judged not "by the
color of their skin but by the content of their character" and that
this was "deeply rooted in the American dream."
I still believe that today. And the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission strives to bring our reality closer to that dream.
March 1, 1988
Presidential Classroom for
Young Americans
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
CLARENCE THOMAS SURROGATES
Senator Jack Danforth - Republican, MO
Griffin Bell -
State Senator Ray Allen - Georgia
Larry Thompson -
Attorney (Griffin Bell law firm) Atletntel-
Rufus Cormier - Houston
-
/
(Baker Botts)
Alphonso Jackson - Dallas Housing Authority
2.
BLACK
Pam Talkin - Federal Labor Relations Board
(working on Op Ed - to be placed)
Worked with Clarence at EEOC
Fred Alvarez - Worked with Clarence at EEOC
Now - Pillsbury Madison - San Francisco
Alex Netchvolodoff - Now at Cox Broadcasting
Formerly - EEOC
2x
Alan Moore - Waste Management Inc.
X
Formerly EEOC
Dick Leon - Classmate at Holy Cross
Now Baker Hostetler
Ricky Silberman - Vice Chairman - EEOC 1 LEE L.
Harriet Erlich - EEOC
Willie King - EEOC
Father Brooks - Holy Cross, President
David Brown t Monsanto /
Judge Reggie Walton
1
July 9, 1991
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
POSSIBLE CLARENCE THOMAS SURROGATES
Professor Stephen Carter - Yale Law School
Moderate black - Appeared on "Brinkley"
Professor Shelby Steele - English Professor - San Jose State
Extremely articulate
Needs to be sounded out
Best selling author - The Content of our Character
Professor Lucian Barker - Washington University - St. St-honis
School of Public Law & Diplomacy
Needs to be sounded out
Professor Randy Kennedy - Harvard Law School
Needs to be sounded out
617-495-0907
July 9, 1991
7/9/91
Abortion
Judge Thomas has not articulated his views on the right to
privacy or abortion. Suggestions by pro-choice groups to the
contrary are based on very slim evidence.
O
Pro-choice groups have pointed to Judge Thomas' 1987 speech
before the Heritage Foundation as a "revelation" of his
opposition to the right to privacy. That speech called on
African-Americans to consider conservatism in a new light. In
one part of the speech, he endorsed the use of natural law for
the more aggressive enforcement of civil rights laws.
In setting forth his views on that issue, Judge Thomas made
a passing reference to an article by Lewis Lehrman in which
Lehrman had used natural law to address the issue of
abortion. The reference was a single sentence: "But
Heritage Foundation Trustee Lewis Lehrman's recent essay in
the American Spectator on the Declaration of Independence
and the meaning of the right to life is a splendid example
of applying natural law."
--
Judge Thomas was invoking natural law only to address the
issue of equal opportunity.
--
Judge Thomas made no comment at all on the issue of
abortion, and did not intend to. He was merely embracing
one particular use of natural law (i.e., in the enforcement
of civil rights).
--
Neutral observers have recognized that the pro-choice
movement's reliance on the citation of Mr. Lehrman's article
is a reed too thin to support a conclusion on his views of
Roe or opposition to his nomination. Thus, for example,
William Schneider has written in the Los Angeles Times that
"[o]ne sentence of praise for someone else's article is not
much of a legal doctrine."
Newsweek has written that "the mere endorsement of an
article is not proof positive," and acknowledged the view
that "Thomas was being polite, since he was delivering his
address in an auditorium named after Lehrman."
--
Paul Gigot of the Wall Street Journal wrote that nothing in
Judge Thomas' citation of Lehrman suggested that Judge
Thomas would vote to overturn Roe.
O
Pro-choice groups have also focused on a footnote in an
article on the "higher law" background of the Privileges and
Immunities Clause. That footnote simply cannot be read as taking
a position on the merits of the abortion issue.
--
In the footnote, Judge Thomas merely alludes to, but does
not take any position on, the Roe decision.
--
He accurately characterizes the holding in Roe: A woman's
decision to end her pregnancy is protected by her right to
privacy established by the Court in Griswold. He then
accurately characterizes the holding in Griswold by quoting
from Justice Douglas' opinion for the Court in that case.
--
Judge Thomas then states that he has "elaborate[d] on my
misgivings about activist judicial misuse of the Ninth
Amendment in" another article. No one disputes that vague
constitutional provisions can be abused. He expressed no
views on the meaning of the Ninth Amendment.
--
Moreover, Judge Thomas' statement cannot be taken as
opposition to the Court's holding in either Roe or Griswold
because in neither case does the Court's holding rest on the
Ninth Amendment.
-- In Roe, Justice Blackmun's opinion for the Court
explicitly rejected the Ninth Amendment in favor of the
Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment: "This
right of privacy, whether it be founded in the
Fourteenth Amendment's concept of personal liberty and
restrictions upon state action, as we feel it is, or,
as the District Court determined, in the Ninth
Amendment's reservation of rights to the people, is
broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or
not to terminate her pregnancy." 410 U.S. at 153.
-- In Griswold, Justice Douglas' opinion for the
Court stated that "specific guarantees in the Bill
of Rights have penumbras, formed by emanations
from those guarantees that help give them life and
substance." 381 U.S. at 484. He then went on to
list a number of provisions of the Bill of Rights,
concluding with the Ninth Amendment. The Ninth
Amendment, however, is not a "specific" guarantee
in Justice Douglas' terms because, unlike the
First and Fourth Amendments, it does not protect
any particular right. The Ninth Amendment was the
subject of Justice Goldberg's concurrence, not the
Court's opinion. The Court in Roe relied heavily
on Griswold; Roe's rejection of the Ninth
Amendment in favor of the Due Process Clause is
inconsistent with the claim that Griswold rested
on the Ninth Amendment.
- 2 -
7/15
Mon.
INTERNAL THOMAS GROUP
9:45am.
Ken Duberstein 4-21-44
(Annie 728-1100)
- Andy Card
(Linda x2533)
- Ede Holiday
(Shirley x2174)
- David Demarest
(Sharon x7620)
Ron Kaufman
(Barbara x2135)
Leann Metzger
(x7142)
Dorrance Smith
(Janet x1660)
Lee Liberman
(Claire x6257)
Boyden Gray (Marilyn x2632)
Judy Smith
(Lynn x2100)
Marlin Fitzwater (Natalie x2100)
Ed Rogers
(Mia x6594)
Bobbie Kilberg
(Helen x7900)
Mike Luttig
(Alice 514-2041)
John Mackey 6-29-42
(514-3844)
Bill Kristol
(Jennifer/Kathleen x6606)
Fred
Steve Hart
Jim Dyer
Gary (?)
253124
Document No.
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
07/10/91
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: NOON 07/11
SUBJECT: TALKING POINTS/SUPREME COURT NOMINATION OF JUDGE CLARENCE THOMAS
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
PETERSMEYER
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
ROGICH
BRADY
SMITH
BROMLEY
UNTERMEYER
CARD
AMEND
DEMAREST
FITZWATER
S
GRAY
HOLIDAY
REMARKS:
Please forward any comments directly to Deb Amend, Rm. 121, x7150,
by NOQN on Thursday, Q7/11, with a copy to this office. Thanks.
RESPONSE:
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
TALKING POINTS
SUPREME COURT NOMINATION OF JUDGE CLARENCE THOMAS 10 PM 7: 05
"Judge Thomas' life is a model for all Americans, and he's
earned the right to sit on this nation's highest court."
President Bush nominating Judge Thomas
July 1, 1991
Judge Thomas was chosen because of his fidelity to the
Constitution and the rule of law. These qualities, coupled
with his education and experience, will make him an
exemplary Justice of the Supreme Court.
As Judge Thomas told the Senate Judiciary Committee: "The
reason I became a lawyer was to make sure that minorities,
individuals who did not have access to this society, gained
access. Now, I may differ with others as to how best to do
that, but the objective has always been to include those who
have been excluded."
Judge Thomas was appointed by President Bush in 1989 to the
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
Prior to that he served under President Reagan as the
Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from
1982 to 1986. He also served as Assistant Secretary for
Civil Rights at the Department of Education in 1981. He was
graduated from Holy Cross College with honors in 1971 and
Yale Law School in 1974.
According to Alan Keyes, on the basis of Thomas'
constitutional philosophy and his character, "it would have
been difficult for Mr. Bush to find anyone more qualified
than Judge Thomas. Throughout his public career, he has
displayed the intellectual honesty, integrity and moral
courage that are crucial but all too rare ingredients of
great public service."
Senator Danforth has called Judge Thomas "conservative, but
a compassionate kind of conservative, not rigid or
ideological in his views. His every motive is that he
empathizes with ordinary people, he's one of them."
He believes firmly in the rights of the individual: that
government's role is to protect the rights of the individual
without advancing the interests of any particular lobbying
group.
Thomas would bring to the Court a wealth of experience in
government.
He compiled an outstanding record at EEOC: while seeking
tougher penalties against discriminatory businesses, he
pushed the Reagan administration to work toward improved
voting rights and a strong civil rights agenda.
His emphasis at the EEOC was on prosecuting cases rather
than burdening employers with new regulations. Actions
filed against discriminators rose from less than 250,000 a
year in 1982 to over 560,000 a year under Judge Thomas. In
a two-year period before he took over the commission (1980-
1982), the EEOC collected $320 million in fines from
employers who were involved in racial discrimination. From
1984 to 1986, the EEOC under Judge Thomas brought that
figure up to $381 million.
R. Gaull Silberman, Vice Chairman of the EEOC when Thomas
was Chairman, said, "This man made the EEOC. He built it
into a first-class law enforcement agency. We took three
times as many cases, got more relief for more people than
any other time in history."
When Thomas was nominated to the court of appeals, Robert G.
Dowd, the Presiding Judge of the Missouri Court of Appeals,
wrote that "Mr. Thomas has an outstanding civil rights
record and has demonstrated leadership and excellence as
Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He
added that he "sincerely believed that Mr. Thomas would
bring honor, excellence, and scholarship to the appellate
court."
The nomination is not dictated by Judge Thomas' race; it is
not dictated by his ideology; it is dictated by his
outstanding scholarship and his commitment to the
Constitution and individual rights.
The President recently said that Judge Thomas "offers what I
think is a very stirring testament to what people can do
when they refuse to take no for an answer, when through
sheer determination they overcome the obstacles that others
have placed in their way."
JUDGE CLARENCE THOMAS - QUALIFICATIONS
Holy Cross College - Class of 1971
-
Ran free breakfast program for black
school children
-
Tutored in local schools
Yale Law School - Class of 1974
-
Also worked New Haven Legal Assistance providing
legal aid to disadvantaged
Assistant Attorney General - Missouri (1974 - 1977)
-
Responsible for several hundred court cases
at the trial and appellate level.
Monsanto Company - Counsel (1977 - 1979)
-
Advised corporate managers on issues;
special emphasis on environment
Legislative Assistant to Senator John Danforth - 1979
Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights - Department of Education (1981)
-
Supervised office that is responsible for enforcing
anti-discrimination laws in educational institutions
which receive federal funds.
Chairman of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (1982 - 1990)
-
Enforcing federal laws against discrimination
in the workplace.
Judge - United States Court of Appeals
for District of Columbia Circuit (1990 - Present)
-
Confirmed by Senate in an overwhelming majority
-
Participated in over 140 decisions
DRAFT 7/9/91 - to be reviewed with nominee
Clarence Thomas the Man
Judge Clarence Thomas was born June 23, 1948, in Pinpoint, a
rural community near Savannah, Georgia. His father left the
family when Thomas was still a small child. For the first years
of his life Thomas lived in a house with no indoor plumbing,
moving at one point to a cramped tenement in Savannah.
At the age of seven, Thomas went to live with his maternal
grandparents, Myers and Christine Anderson. His grandfather,
though barely literate, owned and managed an ice and fuel oil
delivery business in which Thomas worked after school. Anderson
was also active in the local chapter of the NAACP. It was
largely from his grandparents that Thomas learned the importance
of hard work and discipline -- lessons that he has applied
throughout his life.
The Andersons sent Thomas to all black schools in Savannah,
where he was taught by white Franciscan nuns. The educational
standards were very high. Thomas has said of the nuns: "They
most assuredly taught us love for our fellow man, they most
assuredly taught us Christian values, but they taught us to be
self-sufficient individuals first." The nuns underscored his
grandparents' teaching about the importance of education.
In 1964, Thomas transferred to St. John Vianney Minor
Seminary near Savannah, where for most of the succeeding three
years he was the only black student in his class. He excelled in
his studies and was also quarterback of the football team.
At this point in his life, Thomas intended to become a
priest. However, after spending several months at Immaculate
Conception Seminary in Missouri, he changed his mind and
transferred to Holy Cross College in Massachusetts. He supported
his education through a combination of scholarships, loans, and
jobs. He worked in the Free Breakfast Program and tutored in the
local community. He graduated with honors in 1971.
Thomas then went to Yale Law School. While a law student,
he worked summers for New Haven Legal Assistance and for a small
law firm in Savannah. He graduated from law school in 1974.
Throughout his life, Thomas has seized the opportunities
that the American system offers to all. As Judge Thomas said on
being nominated by President Bush, "only in America could this
have been possible" for a child born in poverty and segregation
to be nominated to the Supreme Court. In the President's words,
Thomas defines "the endless possibilities of the American dream."
Georgia State Senator Roy Allen, a classmate, said that Thomas
"represents the dream that African Americans want to achieve."
- 2 -
Thomas' legal career is a long record of accomplishment.
Much of that career has been dedicated to service to the Nation.
In 1974, John C. Danforth, then the Attorney General of Missouri,
hired Thomas as an Assistant Attorney General. Thomas practiced
principally in the areas of criminal and tax law, arguing several
cases before the Missouri Supreme Court. In 1977, he joined the
legal staff of the Monsanto Company where he was involved in
matters relating to contracts, antitrust law, and products
liability. In 1979, he became a legislative assistant to Senator
Danforth.
In 1981, Thomas was appointed Assistant Secretary for Civil
Rights in the United States Department of Education. One year
later, Thomas was appointed Chairman of the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission; he was reappointed in 1986. The EEOC, an
agency that employs 3100 persons and has an annual budget of $180
million, enforces Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which
prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and
national origin. The EEOC also enforces laws against
discrimination based on age or disability. Thomas' tenure as
Chairman was the longest in the history of the Commission, and
the Commission's new headquarters building is named after him.
On April 30, 1990, Thomas assumed his present position as a
judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia Circuit, to which he was appointed by President Bush.
- 3 -
During his time on the bench, he has written opinions in such
areas as criminal law, antitrust law and trade regulation,
constitutional law, and administrative law.
Throughout his distinguished career, Thomas has championed
the principle that individuals should be judged on the basis of
abilities and character, and not on skin color. He believes that
every American should have the same opportunity to stand up and
be judged on his or her own efforts. He has lucidly explained
his views on a variety of issues, legal and otherwise, in his
judicial decisions and in articles and speeches. He has been
described in the press as smart, tough, a man who "speaks
powerfully about overcoming racism and poverty in the deep South"
and who "embodies the ideal of personal achievement rather than
reliance on government programs for a leg up." As Senator Hatch
has observed, Thomas "came up the hard way" and "understands the
sting of oppression." Senator Danforth made a similar point when
he observed that Thomas "is a person who knows discrimination.
He has a real commitment to fighting injustice."
In 1987, Thomas married Virginia Lamp, an official at the
Department of Labor. His son from his first marriage, Jamal,
lives with the family in Alexandria, Virginia. Thomas
occasionally jogs, lifts weights, and enjoys country music.
- 4 -
In announcing his nomination of Judge Thomas to the Supreme
Court, President Bush described him as "a delightful and warm,
intelligent person who has great empathy and a wonderful sense of
humor. " The President observed that Judge Thomas "has excelled
in everything that he has attempted," and that his "life is a
model for all Americans." He added that Judge Thomas is
"fiercely independent thinker with an excellent legal mind, who
believes passionately in equal opportunity for all Americans."
Senator Dole applauded the nomination, citing Thomas'
"impeccable credentials" and calling Thomas "a man whose very
life exemplifies the American dream." Senator Danforth has
described Thomas as "outstanding in every respect" and observed
that Thomas is "a compassionate kind of conservative, not rigid
or ideological in his views
...
In a very real way, he'll be
the people's justice."
- 5 -
QUOTES FROM CLARENCE THOMAS
On Civil Rights:
I wasn't alone. There are those of you here today who have my
memories -- who knew the same hurt, and who have shared the same
satisfaction in seeing the changes brought about by the Civil
Rights movement.
That movement has brought about enormous societal changes in the
United States. To name just a few, there has been a host of civil
rights laws, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964; dual public
school systems were eliminated; fair housing laws were passed;
colleges and universities once closed to minorities opened their
doors; and equal employment laws were passed. In short, measures
affecting every one of the fundamental aspects of daily life --
housing, jobs, education, the right to participate in a democratic
government -- were enacted.
These new laws changed the entire way of life for many Americans.
They continue to do so. And they are basic to the very functioning
of our system of government.
I believe in the vigorous enforcement of civil rights laws and have
pledged to do everything I can to pursue such enforcement by the
EEOC. There are some who claim that this administration has turned
its back on civil rights enforcement, that it has no civil rights
policy, that it is satisfied to watch the clock get turned back in
civil rights areas. Those who make this claim are wrong. I will
have no part in turning back the clock, or in seeing past progress
undermined by current laxness.
June 3, 1982
D.C. Chapter of the Industrial
Relations Research Association
On the NAACP:
The NAACP has a history of which we can all be proud. From its
inception in 1909 til today, the work this organization has done
in the area of civil rights is unmatched by any other such group.
At each turn in the development of blacks in this country, the
NAACP has been there to meet the many challenges. In the past,
those challenges ranged from voter registration drives to fighting
injustices in the legal system. In each situation the NAACP has
fought hard and has won many battles. But the battles are not
over. There are many still to be fought and hopefully many will
be won. But winning these battles will require new strategies and
creative thinking on your part. The name "The Crisis", selected
as the name of the official publication of the NAACP, was taken
from a poem "The Present Crisis", written by James Russell Lowell.
The words are as applicable to the problems of today as they were
in 1909. Three lines from that poem are especially appropriate
today:
New occasions teach new duties: Time makes ancient
good uncouth;
They must upward still, and onward, who would keep
abreast of truth;
Lo before us gleam her camp-fires! We ourselves
must Pilgrims be.
At the EEOC, we recognize our "new duties" and we are beginning to
develop these new strategies and to truly fulfill our role as
protectors of the rights of all. Our role is that of federal
enforcer. The role of the NAACP, of course, is that of advocate.
I realize, that as an advocate for our race, our efforts have been
unsurpassed. As a true advocate, it is imperative that you carry
the same energy you have used in the past into the 1980's to meet
the new challenges. However, the new challenges require more than
the energy of the past. The new challenges require you to be
"Pilgrims" as you face the future. While the NAACP's history is
one of countless accomplishments, you can not afford to rest on
that history.
October 23, 1982
Maryland Conference of NAACP
On Civil Rights:
It has been nearly nineteen years since Title VII was incorporated
in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, since equal employment opportunity
became the law of the land. Since those days when we, who had been
locked out of the American dream for centuries, rejoiced, knowing
hope, at last, was on the way.
And, the federal government must continue to pave the way in civil
rights. The federal government has always had both a profound
moral obligation and a constitutional duty to protect individual
rights. Increasingly that ideal has gained the force of the law.
But, in the words of Frederick Douglass, "Power concedes nothing
without a demand." And, even the government did not move
decisively until the thunderous demand of protest against injustice
could, no longer, be ignored.
For in one of the most compelling and glorious events in this
nation's history, a vast cross-section of this nation's population
was on the march -- a march for justice -- a march to turn this
nation from its schizophrenic posture between its stated beliefs,
the ideals on which it was founded, and the reality of its
existence. A nation, founded on the princip] es of liberty and
justice, began to see that its anthems and credos had a hollow
ring. A nation which had averted its eyes by playing hide and seek
with the stranger knocking at the door. And, as the poet Dylan
says, "He was wearing the clothes that you once wore."
A nation long deaf to the pleas of the impoverished heard the sound
of marching feet, marching to Birmingham, to Selma, to Jackson.
It heard that the bank of liberty had, as Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. said, "insufficient funds" to right the wrongs America had
heaped upon its minority citizens.
The eyes of the world turned on America. No longer could the
champion of freedom and justice abroad continue to be the bastion
of separate but equal at home. No longer could people who, for 300
years, had contributed mightily to the development of this nation
be denied a full partnership in its destiny. No longer would this
country be allowed to turn its back on so many among us who had
suffered so long from the denial of the American dream.
The spirit of the Declaration of Independence, reborn in the civil
rights movement, became embodied in the laws of the land. And the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was created to make certain
these laws would be enforced.
December 6, 1983
EEOC Seminar
Pittsburgh, PA
On Civil Rights:
My grandparents, who raised me, are perfect examples of what
discrimination can do Early in life, as I watched them toil
away, I realized that their efforts would be seriously impeded by
something beyond their control -- racial discrimination. They had
overcome the lack of formal education, the Great Depression and an
assortment of other adversities. But, no matter what efforts they
made race was a roadblock to taking full advantage of the benefits
of this country. As a result of living through this experience and
other experiences, I have strong views about civil rights.
Many of us have walked through doors opened by the civil rights
leaders, now you must see that others do the same. As individuals
who have received the benefit of an education which was probably
denied your fathers and mothers, and in some cases sisters and
brothers, you must devise a plan for a civil rights movement for
the 1980s.
1983
Integrated Education
Volume 21
So again I find myself challenging you. This time with the words
of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. "It is time for the Negro 'haves'
to join hands with the 'have-nots' and, with compassion, journey
into the other country of hurt and denial. It is time for the
Negro
middle class to rise up from its stool of indifference, to retreat
from its flight into unreality and to bring its full resources -
- its heart, its mind and its checkbook -- to the aid of the less
fortunate brother."
August 5, 1983
Inroads, Inc.
Knoxville, TN.
On Discrimination:
Through my radical days, through my days at New Haven Legal
Assistance, through the summer working under a grant from the Law
Student's Civil Rights Research Council, I did not forget. Through
Holy Cross and Yale, I did not forget. As Assistant Attorney
General and Assistant Secretary, I did not forget. As Chairman of
the EEOC, I cannot and will not forget. I can never forget the
agony of discrimination -- the humiliation of prejudice.
Like many blacks, I have lived without indoor plumbing; without
electricity; without adequate heating. I have eaten Kelloggs Corn
Flakes with water and Pet Milk. I have eaten the edges trimmed
from breads used to make "hors d'oeuvres" for white people. I was
born and raised in a segregated society -- separate libraries,
movies, water fountains, separate parks.
I have mowed lawns, plowed, and cut hay, stripped fodder, cleaned
sewers, ground sugar cane and made syrup. These were things my
grandfather told me I had to learn to survive. But he also
imparted values which I retain to this day. Among them is honesty.
Another is personal integrity. I have no intention of sacrificing
my principles to accommodate others or because it would be
expedient.
I am an American -- a black American. Nothing hurts me so much as
the sufferings of my race. I firmly believe that the sufferings
and the problems we face are so great that all who recognize them
must look for solutions. We need new ideas in our arsenal of
weapons to fight discrimination. At no time must we allow
ourselves to believe that we must agree on every issue. We are not
robots -- we are a creative, resilient race. Just as we are
different we have different ideas and different opinions.
We cannot -- no, we must not believe that we must all think alike
anymore than we believe we all look alike. And we must not give
up the struggle.
March 24, 1984
Holy Cross College
On Brown V. Board of Education:
It has now been thirty years since the Supreme Court, for the first
time since Reconstruction, began to transfer into reality the creed
of our Declaration of Independence. It has been thirty years since
the Supreme Court took that first brave but fragile step into
making America truly one nation -- a nation bound and governed by
one set of laws for all. It has been thirty years since the much
heralded soul of this nation, first crept from beneath the veneer
of hypocrisy. Three decades ago, nine men of the law moved to make
the creed of America reality for all.
Although the Brown decision over-turned the Plessy V. Ferguson
doctrine of "separate but equal" in the area of education only, it
marked the beginning of an era of at least an overt consensus that
segregation and racial injustice were illegal and morally wrong -
- a consensus that opened the floodgates to an era of reform
considered by many to be the second Reconstruction.
April 23, 1984
Temple University
School of Law
On Segregation:
Was it the great migration with its sudden concentration of blacks
in the urban North and the new beginning of black political
awareness that had begotten a change in the name of the political
game?
Or the surge of pride which black folks felt as they huddled around
their ghetto radios to hear Joe Louis preaching equality with his
fists, or hear Jesse Owens humbling Hitler with his feet?
Was it A. Phillip Randolph, mobilizing 100,000 blacks ready to
march on Washington in 1941 -- and FDR hurriedly signing Executive
Order 8802 banning discrimination in war industries and
apprenticeship programs?
Or the 99th Pursuit Squadron, trained in segregated units at
Tuskegee, flying like demons in the death struggle high over Italy?
or black soldiers storming up beaches called Anzio and Normandy?
Was it Rosa Parks who said "No" she wouldn't move; and Daisy Bates
who said "Yes", black children would go to Central High School?
Or the arrival of black leaders at the United Nations building in
New York and on Embassy Row in Washington -- men like
Kwame N'Krumah and Sekou Toure -- who blew forever the myth of
Mumbo Jumbo, King of the Congo?
Or the three men who had been the black man's embodiment of
Blitzkrieg -- the most phenomenal legal brains ever combined in one
century for the onslaught against injustice -- Charles Houston,
William Hastie, Thurgood Marshall?
Was it Martin Luther King and Malcolm X who posed the question of
evolution or revolution?
Or a group of students who said, "We've had enough. I mean, what's
so sacred about a sandwich, Jack?"
Or men named Warren, Frankfurter, Black, Douglas who read the Bill
of Rights and believed?
But whatever -- it was on -- in the streets, at the lunch counters,
on the buses. And though the North tried hard to keep attention
focused on the South, it was as plain as a ghetto that Messrs.
Mason and Dixon had not defined the boundaries of ugliness and
injustice.
Brown marked the turn in the tide. If segregation in education was
unlawful, was it legal in public accommodations, in employment, in
housing? The world waited to hear America's answer.
White America, for the first time since the Republican domination
of Reconstruction was being forced to deal with the unjust plight
of its "invisible" race. Blacks and their often newly-found white
allies stormed the Jericho of segregation -- and the walls came
tumbling down.
April 7 1984
Yale Law School
Black Law Students
Association Conference
On Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:
Last month, we celebrated the birthday of a man who articulated and
dramatized what my day-to-day heroes taught us. Holidays such as
Dr. King's birthday should be occasions when we can see what we
have in common with each other, rather than dwell on what divides
us.
Martin Luther King, the man who spoke of having a dream, reflected
that the Declaration of Independence speaks of not some men, but
of all men.
Dr. King described the Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution as "a promissory note to which every American was to
fall heir." But despite the bad check America had written black
Americans, Dr. King refused to believe that the "Bank of Justice"
was bankrupt. He knew that the resources of America were great.
He imagined a nation where his children would be judged not "by the
color of their skin but by the content of their character" and that
this was "deeply rooted in the American dream."
I still believe that today. And the Equal Emp byment Opportunity
Commission strives to bring our reality closer to that dream.
March 1, 1988
Presidential Classroom for
Young Americans
DRAFT 7/9/91 - to be reviewed with nominee
XXX
ABC Would News.
Clarence Thomas the Man
PH Roddey 10w. All
Judge Clarence Thomas was born June 23, 1948, in Pinpoint, a
rural community near Savannah, Georgia. His father left the
family when Thomas was still a small child. For the first years
of his life Thomas lived in a house with no indoor plumbing,
moving at one point to a cramped tenement in Savannah.
At the age of seven, Thomas went to live with his maternal
grandparents, Myers and Christine Anderson. His grandfather,
though barely literate, owned and managed an ice and fuel oil
delivery business in which Thomas worked after school. Anderson
was also active in the local chapter of the NAACP. It was
largely from his grandparents that Thomas learned the importance
of hard work and discipline -- lessons that he has applied
throughout his life.
The Andersons sent Thomas to all black schools in Savannah,
where he was taught by white Franciscan nuns. The educational
standards were very high. Thomas has said of the nuns: "They
most assuredly taught us love for our fellow man, they most
assuredly taught us Christian values, but they taught us to be
self-sufficient individuals first." The nuns underscored his
grandparents' teaching about the importance of education.
In 1964, Thomas transferred to St. John Vianney Minor
Seminary near Savannah, where for most of the succeeding three
years he was the only black student in his class. He excelled in
his studies and was also quarterback of the football team.
At this point in his life, Thomas intended to become a
priest. However, after spending several months at Immaculate
Conception Seminary in Missouri, he changed his mind and
transferred to Holy Cross College in Massachusetts. He supported
his education through a combination of scholarships, loans, and
jobs. He worked in the Free Breakfast Program and tutored in the
local community. He graduated with honors in 1971.
Thomas then went to Yale Law School. While a law student,
he worked summers for New Haven Legal Assistance and for a small
law firm in Savannah. He graduated from law school in 1974.
Throughout his life, Thomas has seized the opportunities
that the American system offers to all. As Judge Thomas said on
being nominated by President Bush, "only in America could this
have been possible" for a child born in poverty and segregation
to be nominated to the Supreme Court. In the President's words,
Thomas defines "the endless possibilities of the American dream."
Georgia State Senator Roy Allen, a classmate, said that Thomas
"represents the dream that African Americans want to achieve."
- 2 -
Thomas' legal career is a long record of accomplishment.
Much of that career has been dedicated to service to the Nation.
In 1974, John C. Danforth, then the Attorney General of Missouri,
hired Thomas as an Assistant Attorney General. Thomas practiced
principally in the areas of criminal and tax law, arguing several
cases before the Missouri Supreme Court. In 1977, he joined the
legal staff of the Monsanto Company where he was involved in
matters relating to contracts, antitrust law, and products
liability. In 1979, he became a legislative assistant to Senator
Danforth.
In 1981, Thomas was appointed Assistant Secretary for Civil
Rights in the United States Department of Education. One year
later, Thomas was appointed Chairman of the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission; he was reappointed in 1986. The EEOC, an
agency that employs 3100 persons and has an annual budget of $180
million, enforces Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which
prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and
national origin. The EEOC also enforces laws against
discrimination based on age or disability. Thomas' tenure as
Chairman was the longest in the history of the Commission, and
the Commission's new headquarters building is named after him.
On April 30, 1990, Thomas assumed his present position as a
judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia Circuit, to which he was appointed by President Bush.
- 3 -
During his time on the bench, he has written opinions in such
areas as criminal law, antitrust law and trade regulation,
constitutional law, and administrative law.
Throughout his distinguished career, Thomas has championed
the principle that individuals should be judged on the basis of
abilities and character, and not on skin color. He believes that
every American should have the same opportunity to stand up and
be judged on his or her own efforts. He has lucidly explained
his views on a variety of issues, legal and otherwise, in his
judicial decisions and in articles and speeches. He has been
described in the press as smart, tough, a man who "speaks
powerfully about overcoming racism and poverty in the deep South"
and who "embodies the ideal of personal achievement rather than
reliance on government programs for a leg up." As Senator Hatch
has observed, Thomas "came up the hard way" and "understands the
sting of oppression." Senator Danforth made a similar point when
he observed that Thomas "is a person who knows discrimination.
He has a real commitment to fighting injustice."
In 1987, Thomas married Virginia Lamp, an official at the
Department of Labor. His son from his first marriage, Jamal,
lives with the family in Alexandria, Virginia. Thomas
occasionally jogs, lifts weights, and enjoys country music.
- 4 -
In announcing his nomination of Judge Thomas to the Supreme
Court, President Bush described him as "a delightful and warm,
intelligent person who has great empathy and a wonderful sense of
humor." The President observed that Judge Thomas "has excelled
in everything that he has attempted," and that his "life is a
model for all Americans." He added that Judge Thomas is
"fiercely independent thinker with an excellent legal mind, who
believes passionately in equal opportunity for all Americans."
Senator Dole applauded the nomination, citing Thomas'
"impeccable credentials" and calling Thomas "a man whose very
life exemplifies the American dream." Senator Danforth has
described Thomas as "outstanding in every respect" and observed
that Thomas is "a compassionate kind of conservative, not rigid
or ideological in his views.
...
In a very real way, he'll be
the people's justice."
- 5 -
7/9/91
Qualified for the Court: Judge Thomas and His Predecessors
Judge Clarence Thomas is highly qualified to serve on the
United States Supreme Court. His personal achievement in the
face of adversity is an embodiment of the American dream. Even
more importantly, his professional career has fully prepared him
to serve on the Supreme Court. As explained below, his academic
and career record compare favorably with those of many past
members of the Court at the time of their nomination.
Judge Thomas' academic record is impressive. He graduated
from Holy Cross College in 1971, and from Yale Law School in
1974. In addition to excelling academically during his college
and law school days, Judge Thomas evinced an early commitment to
public service. While at Holy Cross, he ran a free breakfast
program for black schoolchildren and tutored in the local
schools. During two of his summers at Yale, Judge Thomas worked
for New Haven Legal Assistance to provide legal aid to the
disadvantaged.
Since his graduation from Yale Law School, Judge Thomas has
proven his legal skills in a variety of positions in government
and the private sector. In his first year out of law school, he
managed an extensive litigation practice as an Assistant Attorney
General in Missouri. During his 2-1/2 years in that position,
Judge Thomas was responsible for several hundred court cases at
both the trial and appellate levels. His excellent performance
in this office quickly earned him the respect and friendship of
his boss, then-Attorney General John Danforth.
Upon leaving the Missouri Attorney General's office, Judge
Thomas took a position as counsel to the Monsanto Company. In
that capacity, he advised corporate managers on a variety of
issues, with a particular emphasis on environmental matters.
In 1979, John Danforth prevailed on Clarence Thomas to join
him, this time as a member of Danforth's Senate staff. Judge
Thomas was given responsibility for matters involving the
environment, energy, public works, and the Department of
Interior.
In 1981, President Reagan appointed Clarence Thomas to be
Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the Department of
Education. In that position, he supervised the office that is
responsible for enforcing the anti-discrimination laws in
educational institutions which receive federal financial
assistance.
Judge Thomas' second presidential appointment came barely a
year later, when President Reagan nominated him to be the
Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the
agency charged with enforcing federal laws against discrimination
- 2 -
in the workplace. Judge Thomas' record during his eight years of
service at the EEOC was widely praised. Frank Quevado, former
Chairman of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education
Fund, testified in 1990 that Judge Thomas "worked hard to rebuild
an agency which, though possessing strong moral leadership
historically, had suffered from an inability to effectively carry
out its responsibilities to individual victims of discrimination
" The Vice Chair of the EEOC, R. Gaull Silberman, has
observed that "[u]nder Clarence's leadership, the agency found
its mission as a law enforcement agency and it attained a
credibility that it had never had before. In 1987, the
Washington Post editorialized that "[u]nder the quiet but
persistent leadership of Chairman Clarence Thomas, the number of
cases processed has gone from 50,935 in fiscal 1982 to 66,305 [in
1986]. In short, as Fred W. Alvarez, a San Francisco labor
attorney who worked under Judge Thomas at the EEOC, put it, "[h]e
totally turned around the management and reputation [of] EEOC
"
Judge Thomas' third Presidential appointment came in 1990
when President Bush appointed him to be a judge of the United
States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Judge Thomas has participated in over 140 decisions and has
authored opinions on such diverse issues as criminal procedure,
antitrust law, and the powers of federal agencies. His work on
that court has been widely praised.
- 3 -
Perhaps no evaluation is more accurate than that of his
judicial colleagues on the D.C. Circuit. Judge Abner Mikva says
"[h]e's been a very good colleague. I have nothing but praise
for his collegiality -- in conference, in social relationships,
and in all the things that judges do." Another judge on the
court says Thomas "has very directed questions at oral argument,
and he has very directed, focused questions in conference." This
judge also reported that Thomas is "extremely well prepared" for
argument and conference. Other judicial colleagues have said
that he is "a wonderful person to deal with," "very open," "not
pretentious," and "warm and personable." Upon learning of Judge.
Thomas' nomination, Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson said: "I'm so
excited, so very happy for Judge Thomas, for the Supreme Court,
and for the country. He is, to me, the living embodiment of the
American dream fulfilled. He's accomplished so much, and he has
come from a background of deprivation and poverty and
discrimination, and he has just triumphed."
Judge Thomas' experience clearly qualifies him for a seat on
the Supreme Court. The high level of his qualifications may be
illustrated by comparing his professional background with that of
many who have served as Justices of the Supreme Court in this
century and earlier. At age 43, seventeen years after his
graduation from Yale Law School, Judge Thomas is in the prime of
his career. Not surprisingly, a number of previous nominees to
- 4 -
the Supreme Court have been selected at approximately the same
stage in their lives. Justice William O. Douglas, for example,
was nominated to the Court by President Roosevelt at the age of
40, when he was only fourteen years out of law school. Justice
Douglas' professional career consisted principally of six years
as a law school professor and five years in public service as a
member of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Justice Byron
R. White was appointed to the Court by President Kennedy at the
age of 44, sixteen years after his graduation from Yale Law
School. Justice Potter Stewart was also 44 years old at the time
of his nomination. One of the greatest Justices in our Nation's
history, Joseph Story, was appointed to the Court at the age of
32, only ten years after he was admitted to the Massachusetts
bar.
Having served on what many regard as the second highest
court in the land, the United States Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia Circuit, Judge Thomas has ample judicial
experience to prepare him for the Court. As noted above, Judge
Thomas has already participated in over 140 decisions in the
Court of Appeals on a wide range of issues. Moreover, prior
judicial service is hardly a prerequisite for appointment to the
Supreme Court. Two members of the current Court, Chief Justice
William Rehnquist and Justice Byron White, had no judicial
experience before joining the Court. The same can be said of a
number of other Justices who served with distinction in this
- 5 -
century, including Chief Justices Warren, Stone, and Hughes, and
Justices Brandeis, Douglas, Frankfurter, and Powell. Even the
great Chief Justice, John Marshall, had no judicial experience
before joining the Supreme Court at age 45.
Few Justices of the Supreme Court have had governmental
experience -- at both the state and federal level -- equal to
that of Judge Thomas. During his career, Judge Thomas has spent
two years in state government in Missouri and eight years in the
Executive Branch of the federal government. In a day and age
where a great number of cases to come before the Supreme Court
involve challenges to the actions of state or federal
governments, insight into the operation of government gained
through such experience is invaluable for a Justice of the
Supreme Court.
There obviously is no single appropriate resume for a
nominee to the United States Supreme Court. Past Justices have
displayed an array of professional backgrounds, ranging from
extensive private practice of law to substantial service in the
public sector. When viewed in relation to his predecessors,
there should be no doubt that Judge Thomas possesses the
professional experience required for service on the Supreme
Court. Judge Thomas' career to date reflects an excellence and
diversity that qualify him to take a seat on our highest Court.
- 6 -
7/9/91
Fairness and Sensitivity
O
Judge Thomas has a deep and abiding respect for the law. In
his confirmation hearing for his nomination to the Court of
Appeals, Judge Thomas stated, "I have always taken my oath
extremely seriously. And even when I had signficant personal
differences, I have given
priority to the law."
O
Judge Thomas told the Senate Judiciary Committee: "[T]he
reason I became a lawyer was to make sure that minorities,
individuals who did not have access to this society gained
access. Now, I may differ with others as to how best to do that,
but the objective has always been to include those who have been
excluded."
O
John Jacobs, Executive Director of the National Urban
League, said that "[w]hat Judge Thomas brings to the nomination
is a background of poverty and minority status. While he is
conservative, he cannot deny what he has been in life." WT,
7/2/91.
o
Senator Danforth called Judge Thomas "conservative, but a
compassionate kind of conservative, not rigid or ideological in
his views. His every motive is that he empathizes with ordinary
people, he's one of them." WP, 7/2/91.
O
Orian Douglass, a lawyer in Brunswick, Georgia, who is a
friend of Judge Thomas, said that "[h]e's going to hold himself
spiritually accountable for his decisions. He's not going to
rule one way or the other because of pressure. He came up the
rough side of the mountain, and I know he's not going to be
insensitive." NYT, 7/3/91.
O
President Bush has said that he told Judge Thomas "to do
like the umpire: call 'em as you see 'em." The President added
that Judge Thomas will "approach the cases that come before the
Court with a commitment to deciding them fairly, as the facts and
the law require." NYT, 7/2/91.
o
A law school classmate and former Carter Administration
official describes Judge Thomas this way: "We are talking about
a person who understands what it's like to be black and poor in
this country and to face the worst kinds of prejudice. The kind
of experiences he's had, he will not block those from his
thinking." WP, 7/2/91.
o
Circuit Judge Damon Keith, a Carter appointee often
described as a judicial liberal, has this to say about Judge
Thomas: "If I or a member of my family were in trouble, he is
the kind of person I'd like to appear before. Our judicial
philosophy may not be the same, but he is a bright and reflective
man who believes passionately in fairness. I say this without
man who believes passionately in fairness. I say this without
reservation, and in full knowledge of all the people who complain
about him." WSJ, 7/2/91.
- 2 -
7/9/91
EXCELLENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS
O
In an editorial on July 2, 1991, the Wall Street Journal
stated: "Judge Thomas is precisely the kind of jurist President
Bush assured voters he would select. He would take the
Constitution seriously and apply the laws equally. We eagerly
await the beginnig of many years of service by Justice Clarence
Thomas."
O
In nominating Judge Thomas to be an Associate Justice on the
Supreme Court, President Bush stated: "Judge Thomas' life is a
model for all Americans, and he's earned the right to sit on this
nation's highest court." The President observed that Judge
Thomas "has excelled in everything that he has attempted," and
described him as "a fiercely independent thinker with an
excellent legal mind, who believes passionately in equal
opportunity for all Americans."
O
Senator Danforth said of Judge Thomas, "I know him to be an
absolutely first rate lawyer, and beyond that, I know him to be a
first-rate human being." WT, 7/3/91.
O
Senator Dole said that Judge Thomas is "a man whose very
life exemplifies the American dream." WP, 7/2/91.
0
Senator Hatch said, "This man understands the difficulties
of life. He has had a tough life but he's made it all the way.
Anybody who takes him on in the area of civil rights is taking on
the grandson of a sharecropper." NYT, 7/2/91.
O According to Lovida Coleman, a Washington Lawyer, friend,
and classmate from Yale (and the daughter of William Coleman),
"[h]e made it strictly on the merits, and he resents the notion
that he's ever gotten anywhere because he's black." NYT, 7/2/91.
O R. Gaull Silberman, Vice Chairman of the EEOC when Thomas
was Chairman, said, "This man made the EEOC. He built it into a
first-class law enforcement agency. We took three times as many
cases, got more relief for more people than any other time in
history." WT, 7/4/91. She added that "[h]e is uniquely
qualified in terms of character and intellect, and he has the
courage of a lion. What else do you need?" Id.
o
She also said of Thomas, "He is dignified, reflective,
direct, careful, courageous. LAT, 7/7/91.
o
The Washington Post stated in an editorial that "even those
who have disagreed with him on policy grounds will concede that
his life, which began in extreme poverty, has been one of
accomplishment. If confirmed, he would bring to the court a
range of experience not shared by any other sitting justice."
WP, 7/2/91.
O
Alan Keyes wrote recently that, on the basis of the
nominee's constitutional philosophy and his character, "it would
have been difficult for Mr. Bush to find anyone more qualified
than Judge Thomas. Throughout his public career, he has
displayed the intellectual honesty, integrity and moral courage
that are the crucial but all too rare ingredients of great public
service." WT, 7/8/91.
O
Judge Karen Henderson said of Judge Thomas, "He is, to me,
the living embodiment of the American dream fulfilled. He's
accomplished so much, and he has come from a background of
deprivation and poverty and discrimination, and he has just
triumphed." Legal Times of Washington, 7/8/91.
O
According to Judge Stephen Williams, Judge Thomas' "great
concern is to get things right." Legal Times of Washington,
7/8/91.
O
Virginia Governor Douglas Wilder has said that Judge Thomas
is "eminently qualified" to sit on the Supreme Court. USA Today,
7/8/91.
o
Georgia State Senator Roy Allen, a friend from school, said
that while Judge Thomas' upbringing could be called conservative,
"to me, he represents the dream that African-Americans want to
achieve. I don't know if you can dissect that into labels --
conservative, liberal or whatever. He's a guy who has
principles." WT, 7/2/91.
O
Senator Danforth has said that Judge Thomas is "a
compassionate kind of conservative," "the people's nominee for
the Supreme Court, the best of America." US News & World Report,
7/15/91, at 25.
O
"Thomas does not walk away from disadvantaged blacks;
indeed, he has invested years trying to help them." Id. at 84.
o
Senator Heflin said that, while he is keeping an open mind
about Judge Thomas' nomination, Thomas has "all the tools of
craftsmanship" for a good justice. Huntsville Times, 7/5/91.
O
John Jacobs, Executive Director of the National Urban
League, said that "[w]hat Judge Thomas brings to the nomination
is a background of poverty and minority status. While he is
conservative, he cannot deny what he has been in life." WT,
7/2/91.
o
Thomas Jipping of the Coalitions for America, a conservative
group, said that Judge Thomas has "a ton of merit." Associated
Press, 7/5/91.
- 2 -
O
According to Father John E. Brooks, President of Holy Cross
College, "[h]e's obviously not a flaming liberal, but he's no
knee-jerk conservative either. He wants to do his own thinking.
He's not following a crowd." NYT, 7/3/91.
O
Tom O'Brien, a close friend, characterizes Thomas as
"honest" and "courageous" and says "I can't imagine him belying
his own system of beliefs for anything." NYT, 7/3/91.
O
When Judge Thomas was nominated to the District of Columbia
Circuit, William T. Coleman, Jr., the former Secretary of
Transportation, said that "this is a fine appointment and
...
Mr. Thomas will add further luster and judicial ability to the
Court." He added that "he had met every challenge placed before
him. He is equal to and has the courage to decide legal issues
according to the statutes and the precedents.
...
To these
talents he adds the drive and understanding of human fraities
which those who have not always had it easy had to have to reach
important positions of public service."
o
At the time of his nomination to the District of Columbia
Circuit, Congressman Jim Kolbe of Arizona wrote that he found
Clarence Thomas "a man of intelligence, integrity and supreme
ability. He is singularly reponsible for the success the
Commission has had in recent years." He also wrote that Thomas
"has been an aggressive and effective advocate for the work of
the Commission.
O
When Thomas was nominated to the court of appeals, Robert G.
Dowd, the Presiding Judge of the Missouri Court of Appeals, wrote
that "Mr. Thomas has an outstanding civil rights record and has
demonstrated leadership and excellence as Chairman of the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission." He added that he "sincerely
believe[d] that Mr. Thomas would bring honor, excellen[ce], and
scholarship to the appellate court."
O
In support of Judge Thomas' nomination to the court of
appeals, Congressman Dick Armey wrote: "Mr. Thomas has served in
an exemplary manner as Chairman of the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission
...
and is an outstanding candidate for
appointment to the court.
...
Consistent with the purpose of
the EEOC, Mr. Thomas has played a vital role in ensuring that
older Americans and minorities have access to a fair and
equitable means of redress."
O
In October 1989, the President of the International
Association of Official Human Rights Agencies wrote this in
support of Clarence Thomas' nomination for the D.C. Circuit:
"Throughout Clarence Thomas' tenure as Chairman of the [EEOC], he
has demonstrated fairness, objectivity, clarity of expression,
and receptivity to new ideas." He added that Thomas "would bring
to the Federal judiciary a sense of fairness, a passion for
- 3 -
fundamental commitment to the rule of law, and a temperament that
would bring great credit to our system of justice."
O
In support of Clarence Thomas' nomination for a seat on the
D.C. Circuit, Thomas L. Jipping of Save America's Youth wrote:
"Clarence Thomas' credentials and performance are exemplary. So
is his character, integrity, and temperament." In a press
release, Save America's Youth declared that Thomas "is truly an
outstanding example for America's youth.
O
Claudia Woods, General Counsel for Save America's Youth and
a black American, wrote in October 1989 to thank President Bush
for nominating Thomas for the D.C. Circuit: "While Mr. Thomas'
outstanding and remarkable credentials alone make him a superb
choice for the judgeship, his sensitivity and personal
experiences make him an even greater choice to serve on the
federal court known to decide some of the most important civil
rights and constitutional questions of our country."
O
At the time of Judge Thomas' nomination to fill a vacancy on
the D.C. Circuit, former EEOC coleague Fred W. Alvarez wrote:
"He will take to the bench the same qualities he brought to EEOC:
a reverence and respect for people and their rights, a
fundamental understanding of struggle, arbitrary barriers and the
precedent." value of hard work, and a stubborn commitment to law and to legal
o
At the time of his nomination to the court of appeals, the
Heritage Foundation wrote of Thomas that he "has been an
effective scholar.' Director of the EEOC, and he is a brilliant legal
o
The Coalitions for America, in support of Thomas' nomination
for the court of appeals, wrote that Thomas "demonstrated superb
management ability" and that he had led the agency "out of the
doldrums in which it had languished."
o
The President recently said that Judge Thomas "offers what I
think is a very stirring testament to what people can do when
they refuse to take no for an answer, when through sheer
determination they overcome the obstacles that others have placed
in their way. WP, 7/9/91.
o
Senator Dole said that Thomas is an "outstanding nominee."
WP, 7/9/91.
- 4 -
7/9/91
Judge Thomas on the Civil Rights Movement
O Judge Thomas has seen the effects of discrimination and has
acknowledged the great debt that Afro-Americans have to the civil
rights leaders:
My grandparents, who raised me, are perfect examples of what
discrimination can do
Early in life, as I watched
them toil away, I realized that their efforts would be
seriously impeded by something beyond their control --
racial discrimination. They had overcome the lack of formal
education, the Great Depression and an assortment of other
adversities. But, no matter what efforts they made race was
a roadblock to taking full advantage of the benefits of this
country. As a result of living through this experience and
other experiences, I have strong views about civil rights.
Many of us have walked through doors opened by the civil
rights leaders, now you must see that others do the same.
As individuals who have received the benefit of an education
which was probably denied your fathers and mothers, and in
some cases sisters and brothers, you must devise a plan for
a civil rights movement for the 1980s.
Thomas, "Discrimination and Its Effects," Integrated Education,
vol. 21, (1983).
o Referring to his grandfather's experience with racism, Judge
Thomas has said:
My grandfather knew why his business wasn't more successful,
but that didn't stop him from getting up at two in the
morning to carry ice, wood and fuel oil. Sure he knew it
was bad. They all knew too well that they were held back by
prejudice. But they weren't pinned down by it. They fought
against discrimination under the leadership of W.W. Law and
the NAACP.
O Judge Thomas has praised Martin Luther King for his leadership
of the civil rights movement and has credited Dr. King with being
the last great advocate for the view that the worth of individual
human beings is derived from principles of natural law:
Martin Luther King was the last prominent American political
figure to appeal to [natural law]
Without such a
notion of natural law, the entire American political
tradition, from Washington to Lincoln, from Jefferson to
Martin Luther King, would be unintelligible.
Thomas, Why Black Americans Should Look to Conservative Policies,
The Heritage Lectures (June 18, 1987).
O Judge Thomas has characterized the work of Martin Luther King
as follows:
The awesome task facing Dr. King was to erase the blatant
contradiction in our society, in which those who were
inherently equal were treated unequally. A contradiction we
recognized as students in segregated schools saying the
pledge of allegiance and singing about the land of the free
-- when we were not free!
Speech given January 14, 1987 before the Kiwanis Club in
Washington, D.C.
O Judge Thomas has been critical of the failure of some
conservatives to recognize the importance of the contribution of
Martin Luther King. Speaking at the Department of Justice'
commemoration of Martin Luther King Day in 1987, he said:
[C]onservatives can learn a lesson from Dr. King. To give
some examples: Surely the free market is the best means for
all Americans, in particular those who have faced legal
discrimination, to acquire wealth. Yet the marketplace
guarantees neither justice nor truth. After all, slaves or
drugs can be bought and sold. The defense of equal
opportunity to compete in a free market is a moral one that
presupposes the Declaration [of Independence]. And Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was fighting for that goal.
Judge Thomas has also said of Dr. King that:
men and women of all parties should appreciate his great
achievement of challenging Americans to live up to the
higher law of America. In this year of the bicentennial it
would be the greatest misfortune for the successors of the
civil rights movement not to draw on the strongest resource,
the Constitution and the higher law inspiring it.
Thomas, Letter to the Editor, Commentary (April, 1987).
O Judge Thomas has also praised the many others who partook of
the great struggle for equality:
In one of the most compelling and glorious events in this
nation's history, a vast cross-section of this nation's
population was on the march -- a march for justice -- a
march to turn this nation from its schizophrenic posture
between its stated beliefs, the ideals on which it was
founded , and the reality of its existence. ...
A nation
long deaf to the pleas of the impoverished heard the sound
of marching feet, marching to Birmingham, to Selma, to
Jackson.
- 2 -
Speech given Dec. 6, 1983, before an EEOC seminar in Pittsburgh,
PA.
O Reflecting on the history of that struggle, Judge Thomas has
said:
Was it the great migration with its sudden concentration of
blacks in the urban north and the new beginning of political
awareness that had begotten a change in the name of the
political game?
Or the surge of pride which black folks felt as they huddled
around their radios to hear Joe Louis preaching equality
with his fists, or to hear Jesse Owens humbling Hitler with
his feet?
Was it A. Phillip Randolph, mobilizing 100, 000 blacks ready
to march on Washington in 1941 -- and FDR hurriedly signing
executive order 8802 banning discrimination in war
industries and apprenticeship programs?
Or the 99th Pursuit Squadron, trained in segregated units at
Tuskegee, flying like demons in the death struggle high over
Italy? Or black soldiers storming up beaches called Anzio
and Normandy?
Was it Rosa Parks who said "no" we wouldn't move; and Daisy
Bates who said "yes," black children would go to Central
High School?
or the three men who had been the black man's embodiment of
Blitzkrieg -- the most phenomenal legal brains ever combined
in one century for the onslaught against injustice --
Charles Houston, William Hastie, Thurgood Marshall?
Was it Martin Luther King and Malcolm X who polarized the
issues of black survival in America and posed the question:
By evolution or revolution?
Or men named Warren, Frankfurter, Black, Douglas who read
the Bill of Rights and believed?
Or a group of students who said, "We've had enough. I mean,
what's so sacred about a sandwich, Jack?"
But whatever -- it was on -- in the streets, at the lunch
counters, on the buses. And though the North tried hard to
keep attention focused on the South, it was as plain as a
- 3 -
ghetto that Messrs. Mason and Dixon did not define the
boundaries of ugliness and injustice.
Speech given May 30, 1984 before the Quad Council Training
Conference, Oakland, CA.
O Finally, in a speech given in 1983 at a Black History Month
celebration, Judge Thomas gave his views on the lessons of the
civil rights movement for Afro-Americans and, indeed, for all
Americans:
We dare not forget all we have gone through and what we have
become. And America cannot afford for us to do so either.
These men and women who fell, and stumbled only to walk
straight again were our forbearers. Out of this human
material came freedom fighters Gabriel Prusser, Sojourner
Truth, Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner, Daniel Vesey, men and
women who forged initiatives to end their servitude and gain
freedom -- all the time revering God; journalists Mary Ann
Shadd Cary, Dr. Martin Robinson Delany, Frederick Douglass,
Gertrude Bustill Mussell, William Monroe Trotter -- the
first black recipient of a Harvard University Phi Beta Kappa
Key; creative scientists, inventors and medical researchers
Benjamin Banneker, Edward A. Bouchet -- the first Afro-
American to receive a PHD in science (physics) in 1876, Dr.
Lloyd Hall, Lewis Latimer, Garrett Morgan, Elbert C.
Robertson, Dr. Ernest Everett Just -- biologist and first
recipient of the NAACP's Spingarn Medal; and in the crafts
and the arts: Thomas Day -- freeborn North Carolinian
cabinetmaker and furniture merchant, Meta Warrick Fuller --
sculptor, and Joshua Johnson or Johnston -- the correct
spelling of his name is one of the lost facts. He was,
however, America's first black portrait painter.
Out of these people came the vanguard of the human rights
and civil rights movements in this country and the spirit
for those movements abroad. When "we shall overcome" is
sung in Ireland, Poland, Japan, South Africa, and England,
those who sing it know they sing an American freedom song --
specifically an Afro-American song. And no one can sing it
without having vivid images of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
marching down America's main streets and highways
challenging America to be what she says she is -- "One
nation ... indivisible." It has become the international
anthem of a world yet to be born where all people are free
to realize their potential.
The Afro-American has also been a model for other minority
efforts to coax America into realizing the ideals of a
democratic society. The Afro-American experience has been
an instructive one. The prophets of the future tell us we
are moving from a product-oriented economy to one that is
- 4 -
information-saturated. The revolution in communications and
information is already here and it is as significant an
occurrence as the introduction of movable type which lit up
the dark ages. The word, the idea, the book must be the
Afro-American revolution as well. And if knowledge of the
truth will be the power which keeps the Afro-American
surging forward, it will provide the context that keeps
America on course toward justice and equity. The history of
her vision is to be found in those lost chapters.
Speech given February 18, 1983 at Black History Month
Celebration, United States Department of Labor, Washington, D.C.
- 5 -
7/9/91
Law and Order
O Judge Thomas is a tough, anti-crime judge. He takes a common-
sense approach to questions of criminal law and procedure, and
has recognized the practical problems that law enforcement
officers face in combatting crime on the streets.
O Commenting in 1985 on what should be done to solve the
problems faced by America's inner cities, Judge Thomas remarked:
"The first priority is to control the crime. The sections where
the poorest people live aren't really livable. If people can't
go to school, or rear their families, or go to church without
being mugged, how much progress can you expect in a community?
Would you do business in a community that looks like an armed
camp, where the only people who inhabit the streets after dark
are the criminals?" Black America Under the Reagan
Administration: A Symposium of Black Conservatives, The Heritage
Foundation Policy Review (Fall 1985).
O In another context Judge Thomas asserted: "We should be at
least as incensed about the totalitarianism of drug traffickers
and criminals in poor neighborhoods as we are about
totalitarianism in Eastern bloc countries." Why Black Americans
Should Look to Conservative Politics, Heritage Foundation Reports
(June 18, 1987).
O Judge Thomas' opinions in the field of criminal law
demonstrate a deep understanding of the community's interest in
deterring crime. He has resisted efforts to impose unreasonably
burdensome requirements on the police and prosecutors or to
overturn criminal convictions on technicalities not required by
the Constitution, while guarding against infringements of the
fundamental rights of criminal defendants.
O Judge Thomas has affirmed judgments of conviction in all but
one of the seven criminal appeals for which he wrote opinions
while on the Court of Appeals. of the eighteen additional
criminal appeals considered by Judge Thomas, he joined the
majority in upholding sixteen criminal convictions and/or
sentences.
O Judge Thomas has rejected the argument that a conviction for
aiding and abetting narcotics distribution should be reversed
because the defendant's involvement was limited to giving a drug
dealer a ride to the site of the illegal transaction. (United
States V. Poston, 902 F.2d 90 (D.C. Cir. 1990))
O Judge Thomas has rejected arguments that a trial judge erred
in admitting police testimony as to the contents of a telephone
call, answered by police during a search of a defendant's
apartment, which tended to show that the defendant was dealing in
narcotics. (United States V. Long, 905 F.2d 1572 (D.C. Cir.),
cert. denied, 111 S. Ct. 365 (1990)). Similarly, he has upheld
the admission at trial of evidence of a defendant's prior drug-
dealing activity. (United States V. Rogers, 918 F.2d 207 (D.C.
Cir. 1990))
O In a case involving narcotics dealers who conducted their
illegal trade out of several rooms in a hotel, Judge Thomas
rejected the argument that police had seized evidence against
them in violation of the Fourth Amendment. In response to the
contention that the warrantless search of one of the rooms was
unlawful, Judge Thomas held that it was justified by exigent
circumstances, and noted that, although "the police carefully
investigated the suspicious hotel guests for more than a week and
sought warrants for all the rooms that they could link to
[defendant], the defendant "tried to frustrate the warrant
process by hopping from room to room." Following recent Supreme
Court precedent, he further ruled that evidence seen by the
police during an unlawful search was nonetheless admissible at
trial on the grounds that it was subsequently acquired on the
basis of an independent and lawfully procured search warrant.
(United States V. Halliman, 923 F.2d 873 (D.C. Cir. 1991)
O Judge Thomas ruled against a defendant who argued that, at his
trial, the judge had improperly instructed the jury as to his
entrapment defense. In so holding, Judge Thomas observed that
"the government [had] introduced overwhelming evidence of
[défendant's] eagerness to sell crack, enough, we are certain,
for the government to have carried the burden of proof it needed
to defeat [defendant's] entrapment defense." (United States V.
Whoie, 925 F.2d 1481 (D.C. Cir. 1991)).
O Judge Thomas is not, however, excessively deferential to the
prosecution at the expense of fairness toward criminal
defendants. In United States V. Miller, 904 F.2d 65 (D.C. Cir.
1990), Judge Thomas joined an opinion by Judge Silberman
overturning defendants' conviction for wire fraud on the ground
that the trial court had excluded admissible exculpatory
evidence.
- 2 -
7/9/91
Quotas
O
Judge Thomas has made clear that he will not consider race
in his constitutional adjudication: "I firmly insist that the
Constitution be interpreted in a colorblind fashion. It is
futile to talk of a colorblind society unless this constitutional
principle is first established. Hence, I emphasize black self-
help, as opposed to racial quotas and other race-conscious legal
devices that only further and deepen the original problem." Wall
St. Journal, 1987 (quoted in Washinton Post, p. A7 (July 2,
1991)
O
Judge Thomas believes that the use of racial quotas in the
job hiring process is bad public policy. He has stated, for
example, that "America was founded on a philosophy of individual
rights, not group rights," and that racial quotas "only further
and deepen the original problem [of race discrimination] Wall
St. Journal, p. A12 (July 2, 1991) ; Letter to the Editor, Wall
St. Journal (Feb. 20, 1987)
O
Nor, in Judge Thomas' view, do racial quotas redress the
wrongs at which they are supposedly directed: "The use of
affirmative action, rather than a victim-specific form of relief,
effectively allows employers to shift the cost of the remedy from
themselves to the actual victims of their past discrimination,
who never receive the back pay and jobs to which they are
entitled, and to the qualified persons who will be deprived of an
employment opportunity because someone else was given a
preference under the remedial plan. Thomas, Affirmative Action
Goals and Timetables: Too Tough? Not Tough Enough!, 5 Yale Law
& Policy Review, 402, 406-07 (1987).
O
These policy views of Judge Thomas reflect the feelings of
the vast majority of the American people. As Senator Dole has
succinctly explained: "Quotas are anti-equal opportunity, anti-
individual merit, and in case you have not noticed, about as
popular with the American people these days as Saddam Hussein."
137 Cong. Rec. S8676 (June 26, 1991). Indeed, an NBC News/Wall
Street Journal poll released June 28 showed that 78% of the
public opposes racial preferences in hiring. New York Times, p.
12 (June 30, 1991). And a recent poll of black Americans showed
that, by a margin of 47% to 39%, they agree with Judge Thomas'
view on quotas. USA Today, p. 1 (July 5, 1991).
o
Judge Thomas' opposition to the imposition of quotas as a
matter of public policy is consistent not only with the position
of President Bush, but with the views expressed by leading Senate
Democrats during debates in the 101st and 102nd Congresses.
-- Senator Biden, the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee,
declared that "eliminating quotas is correct. I do not support
quotas. I have not supported quotas." 137 Cong. Rec. S8676
(June 26, 1991).
-- In connection with proposed civil rights legislation
pending in Congress, Senator Simon has explained that "Congress
has no intention of requiring employers to resort to quota
hiring." 136 Cong. Rec. S10084 (July 19, 1990).
-- Senator Kennedy has disavowed any intent to require
employers to hire according to racial quotas, and he has offered
legislation providing that nothing in his proposed civil rights
act "shall be construed to require an employer to adopt hiring or
promotional quotas on the basis of race." 136 Cong. Rec. S9931,
S9945 (July 18, 1990).
-- Senator Mikulski opposes quotas, because she, like Judge
Thomas, "believes that quotas do not solve anything." 136 Cong.
Rec. S9845 (July 17, 1990).
-- Senator Levin has declared his opposition to hiring
quotas. 136 Cong. Rec. S9961 (July 18, 1990).
-- In short, as Republican Senator Specter aptly summarized,
"[e] verybody agrees we do not want quotas." 136 Cong. Rec. S9828
(July 17, 1990).
- 2 -
7/9/91
Abortion
O
Judge Thomas has not articulated his views on the right to
privacy or abortion. Suggestions by pro-choice groups to the
contrary are based on very slim evidence.
O
Pro-choice groups have pointed to Judge Thomas' 1987 speech
before the Heritage Foundation as a "revelation" of his
opposition to the right to privacy. That speech called on
African-Americans to consider conservatism in a new light. In
one part of the speech, he endorsed the use of natural law for
the more aggressive enforcement of civil rights laws.
--
In setting forth his views on that issue, Judge Thomas made
a passing reference to an article by Lewis Lehrman in which
Lehrman had used natural law to address the issue of
abortion. The reference was a single sentence: "But
Heritage Foundation Trustee Lewis Lehrman's recent essay in
the American Spectator on the Declaration of Independence
and the meaning of the right to life is a splendid example
of applying natural law."
--
Judge Thomas was invoking natural law only to address the
issue of equal opportunity.
--
Judge Thomas made no comment at all on the issue of
abortion, and did not intend to. He was merely embracing
one particular use of natural law (i.e., in the enforcement
of civil rights).
--
Neutral observers have recognized that the pro-choice
movement's reliance on the citation of Mr. Lehrman's article
is a reed too thin to support a conclusion on his views of
Roe or opposition to his nomination. Thus, for example,
William Schneider has written in the Los Angeles Times that
"[o]ne sentence of praise for someone else's article is not
much of a legal doctrine."
--
Newsweek has written that "the mere endorsement of an
article is not proof positive," and acknowledged the view
that "Thomas was being polite, since he was delivering his
address in an auditorium named after Lehrman.'
--
Paul Gigot of the Wall Street Journal wrote that nothing in
Judge Thomas' citation of Lehrman suggested that Judge
Thomas would vote to overturn Roe.
o
Pro-choice groups have also focused on a footnote in an
article on the "higher law" background of the Privileges and
Immunities Clause. That footnote simply cannot be read as taking
a position on the merits of the abortion issue.
--
In the footnote, Judge Thomas merely alludes to, but does
not take any position on, the Roe decision.
--
He accurately characterizes the holding in Roe: A woman's
decision to end her pregnancy is protected by her right to
privacy established by the Court in Griswold. He then
accurately characterizes the holding in Griswold by quoting
from Justice Douglas' opinion for the Court in that case.
--
Judge Thomas then states that he has "elaborate [d] on my
misgivings about activist judicial misuse of the Ninth
Amendment in" another article. No one disputes that vague
constitutional provisions can be abused. He expressed no
views on the meaning of the Ninth Amendment.
--
Moreover, Judge Thomas' statement cannot be taken as
opposition to the Court's holding in either Roe or Griswold
because in neither case does the Court's holding rest on the
Ninth Amendment.
-- In Roe, Justice Blackmun's opinion for the Court
explicitly rejected the Ninth Amendment in favor of the
Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment: "This
right of privacy, whether it be founded in the
Fourteenth Amendment's concept of personal liberty and
restrictions upon state action, as we feel it is, or,
as the District Court determined, in the Ninth
Amendment's reservation of rights to the people, is
broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or
not to terminate her pregnancy." 410 U.S. at 153.
-- In Griswold, Justice Douglas' opinion for the
Court stated that "specific guarantees in the Bill
of Rights have penumbras, formed by emanations
from those guarantees that help give them life and
substance." 381 U.S. at 484. He then went on to
list a number of provisions of the Bill of Rights,
concluding with the Ninth Amendment. The Ninth
Amendment, however, is not a "specific" guarantee
in Justice Douglas' terms because, unlike the
First and Fourth Amendments, it does not protect
any particular right. The Ninth Amendment was the
subject of Justice Goldberg's concurrence, not the
Court's opinion. The Court in Roe relied heavily
on Griswold; Roe's rejection of the Ninth
Amendment in favor of the Due Process Clause is
inconsistent with the claim that Griswold rested
on the Ninth Amendment.
- 2 -
7/9/91
Judicial Restraint
O
When interpreting statutes, Judge Thomas does not substitute
his judgment for that of the legislature. In his confirmation
hearings for his present position, he stated that "the ultimate
goal should always be to apply the will of Congress, the will of
the legislature." "I don't think," Thomas said, "that it's ever
appropriate for a judge to replace the intent of the legislature
with his or her own intent."
O
He has followed this view on the bench. Thus where Congress
prescribed that an agency was to consider environmental factors
but left the ultimate decision up to the agency, Judge Thomas
rejected the notion that it was the court's role to "coax agency
decisionmakers to reach certain results." Citizens Against
Burlington, Inc. V. Busey, 1991 U.S. App. LEXIS 12036 (D.C. Cir.
June 14, 1991).
O
Judge Thomas also recognizes that appellate courts must
respect the roles of juries and trial courts. In ALPO Petfoods,
Inc. V. Ralston Purina Co., 913 F.2d 958, 964 (D.C. Cir. 1990),
Judge Thomas noted that in reviewing the trial court's findings
the court of appeals had "no authority to weigh the evidence
anew." Similarly, on several occasions Judge Thomas has
recognized the "tremendous deference" owed to a jury verdict.
United States V. Long, 905 F.2d 1572, 1576 (D.C. Cir. 1990). See
also United States V. Poston, 902 F.2d 90, 92 (D.C. Cir. 1990).
Yet this is balanced by a willingness to overturn a verdict that
is wholly unsupported by the evidence. Long, 905 F.2d at 1576.
O
Dissenting in a case on the ground that the plaintiffs
lacked standing, Judge Thomas stated: "Federal courts are courts
of limited jurisdiction. When federal jurisdiction does not
exist, federal judges have no authority to exercise it, even if
everyone -- judges, parties, members of the public -- wants the
dispute resolved." Cross-Sound Ferry Services, Inc. V. ICC, 1991
U.S. App. LEXIS 8977, *38 (D.C. Cir. May 10, 1991) (Thomas, J.,
dissenting).
O
Where Congress prohibited the use of collusive joinder to
establish federal court jurisdiction on the basis of a federal
question, but not to establish jurisdiction on the basis of
diversity of citizenship, Thomas wrote that the courts did not
have the authority to prohibit the latter, regardless of the
burden such actions placed on the court's docket. Western
Maryland Ry. V. Harbor Ins. Co., 910 F.2d 960, 964 (D.C. Cir.
1990).
7/9/91
Environmental Law
O While sitting on the Court of Appeals, Judge Thomas enforced
the environmental protection laws but refused to create
additional procedures that would serve only to generate
meaningless red tape and curtail economic efficiency.
O In Citizens Against Burlington, Inc. V. Busey, 1991 U.S. App.
LEXIS 12036 (June 14, 1991), Judge Thomas required an agency to
follow the regulations of the Council on Environmental Quality.
A contractor for the agency had prepared an environmental impact
statement without executing a disclosure form designed to detect
potentially disqualifying conflicts of interest. The agency
assured the petitioners in the case that the contractor "does not
have an undisclosed stake in the project that would potentially
disqualify it." Id. at *38. Judge Thomas stated that such "ipse
dixit does not reassure us" and ordered the agency to have the
contractor execute the disclosure form and to take "prompt
remedial measures if a conflict appeared. Id. at *38-*39.
O Judge Thomas recognizes the scope that Congress has chosen for
the environmental statutes and enforces the statutes within that
scope. For example, while some commentators have hailed the NEPA
as "an environmentalist Magna Carta," Judge Thomas has observed
with respect to the NEPA's purpose:
[I]nstead of ordering, say, that deforested land be
reforested, Congress chose to make the NEPA procedural.
... Just as NEPA is not a green Magna Carta, federal
judges are not the barons at Runnymede. Because the
statute directs agencies only to look hard at the
environmental effects of their decisions, and not to
take one type of action or another, federal judges
correspondingly enforce the statute by ensuring that
agencies comply with the NEPA's procedures, and not by
trying to coax agency decisionmakers to reach certain
results.
Citizens Against Burlington, 1991 U.S. App. LEXIS 12036 at *9.
O Judge Thomas will not overrule an agency on a matter within
the agency's expertise where the agency has "thought hard about
[the] appropriate factors." Citizens Against Burlington, 1991
U.S. App. LEXIS 12036 at *23. Thus, in Citizens Against
Burlington, he refused to overturn the FAA's reasonable judgment
as to the scope of alternatives to the FAA's approving a proposed
airport expansion. The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969
(NEPA) requires agencies to consider "alternatives to the
proposed action,' but to determine such alternatives, "[s]omeone
has to define the purpose of the agency action." Id. at *27.
This choice was left in the first instance to the agency itself,
subject to a reasonableness review by the federal court.
7/9/91
Proper Scope of Questioning
O
One of the distinguishing characteristics of our system of
government is the independence of the judiciary. If judges are
compelled to give their views on issues in advance of their
consideration of a case, that independence is jeopardized. To
see the danger, one need only ask oneself: "What confidence
would I have in the impartiality of a judge who had already
stated his opposition to my case?"
O
It has been universally recognized that questioning a
judicial nominee about specific cases or issues that might come
before him or her in a judicial capacity is improper.
O
As Judge Thomas is both a nominee for a seat on the Supreme
Court and a sitting federal judge, he must refrain from comment
both about issues that might come before the Supreme Court or
before the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
O
As Chairman Biden explained in statements prior to the
confirmation hearings of Justice Souter, the Senate hearings must
not "trespass" on the impartiality of judicial officers, Opening
Statement, Tr. at 7, and for this reason three lines of
investigation are improper:
1. Asking the nominee for "promises," "assurances" or
"commitments as to how [he or she] would vote on any
specific case." 136 Cong. Rec. S12780 (daily ed. Sept.
11, 1990) ; Opening Statement, Tr. at 4.
2. Asking questions "so as to apply a litmus test or a
checklist as to the views of the nominee." 136 Cong.
Rec. S12780 (daily ed. Sept. 11, 1990).
3. Asking questions that would "pry into [the nominee's]
personal views on publicly debated issues." Opening
Statement, Tr. at 4.
O
Senator Specter also recognized that the independence of the
judiciary is the principle reason for exercising restraint in
questioning:
Retention of an independent judiciary requires
restraint by the public and Senators in asking the
nominee's ultimate views. By not asking such
questions, the Senate will be reinforcing the basic
doctrine of separation of powers. 136 Cong. Rec.
S12777 (daily ed. Sept. 11, 1990).
- 1 -
O
Thus Senator Specter "urged" his colleagues that "it is not
appropriate to ask the ultimate question as to what Judge Souter
will do on reversing or sustaining Roe versus Wade." 136 Cong.
Rec. at S12777 (daily ed. Sept. 11, 1990).
O
Senator Simon recently commented that asking a nominee to
state a position on the disposition of a particular case is
"inappropriate." "You shouldn't have a justice on the bench,
hearing a case, wondering what he told a Senate judiciary
committee at some time in the past," Senator Simon stated.
"Friends, foes hunting Thomas' 'paper trail,'" Chicago Tribune
1:1 (July 4, 1991).
O
In his confirmation hearings, Justice Marshall repeatedly
refused to answer questions asked by Senator McCellan regarding
Miranda V. Arizona and Escobedo V. Illinois, which were, of
course, two important and controversial 5-4 decisions that had
just been rendered by a narrowly and deeply divided Supreme
Court. Hearings before the Committee on the Judiciary, United
States Senate, on the Nomination of Thurgood Marshall, of New
York, to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the
United States, 90th Cong., 1st Sess. at 8-14 (1967). In response
to a direct question concerning Miranda, Justice Marshall
replied: "I am not saying whether I disagree with [Miranda] or
not, because I am going to be called to pass upon it. There is
no question about it, Senator. These cases are coming to the
Supreme Court." Id. at 9.
O
Later, after he repeatedly refused to answer questions posed
by Senator Ervin regarding the Fifth Amendment, Justice Marshall
asserted: "I do not think you want me to be in the position of
giving you a statement on the fifth amendment, and then, if I am
confirmed and sit on the Court, when a fifth amendment case comes
up, I will have to disqualify myself
But
I
think
it
would
be wrong for me to give that opinion at this time. When the case
comes before the Court, that will be the time." Id. at 53.
O Justice Marshall summarized his position thus: "My position
is, which in every hearing I have gone over is the same, that a
person who is up for confirmation for Justice of the Supreme
Court deems it inappropriate to comment on matters which will
come before him as a Justice." Id. at 55.
O
Justice Brennan also resisted answering questions posed by
Senator McCarthy concerning whether communism was a political
party or a conspiracy, stating that he had "an obligation not to
discuss any issues that are touched upon in cases before the
Court." Hearings before the Committee on the Judiciary, United
States Senate, on the Nomination of William Joseph Brennan,
Junior, of New Jersey, to be Associate Justice of the Supreme
Court of the United States, 85th Cong., 1st Sess. at 20 (1957).
[NOTE: At the time of his confirmation hearings, Justice Brennan
- 2 -
was already sitting as a Justice on the Court by virtue of a
recess appointment.]
O
A federal statute requires a judge or justice to recuse
himself or herself "in any proceeding in which his impartiality
might reasonably be questioned." 28 U.S.C. § 455 (a). The
he statute further requires the judge or justice to recuse "[w] here
has ... expressed an opinion concerning the merits of the
particular case in controversy." 28 U.S.C. § 455 (b) (3).
O
Canon 5 (A) (3) of the ABA's Code of Judicial Conduct
provides:
A candidate for judicial office:
* * *
(d) shall not:
* * *
(ii) make statements that commit or appear to commit
the candidate with respect to cases, controversies or
issues that are likely to come before the court.
The commentary to this section makes clear that it "applies to
any statement made in the process of securing judicial office,
such as statements to
...
legislative bodies confirming
appointment."
O
Speaking at the ABA's annual convention in August of 1990,
Justice Stevens warned that the Senate confirmation process could
erode judicial independence if nominees are asked how they would
vote on specific issues. Justice Stevens commented: "You really
wouldn't want a judge who would say in advance how he or she
would vote. Very important values are at stake in maintaining
the independence of the nominee as he or she goes through the
confirmation process." Reported in Newsday, p.13 (Aug. 8, 1990).
O
Former Chief Justice Burger has commented: "To expect a
nominee to make commitments, or even to engage in substantive
discussion of a case yet unseen, borders on the preposterous."
Parade Magazine (Sept. 16, 1990), quoted in PR Newswire (Sept.
13, 1990).
o
Lloyd N. Cutler, former Counsel to President Carter, has
asserted that "it is vital to the integrity of the process that
neither they [the President and the Senate] nor the rest of us
insist on knowing in advance how a new justice is going to vote
in a particular case." "In Justices, Mystery Is Essential
.", Washington Post A31 (August 2, 1990). Mr. Cutler also
cited President Lincoln, who wrote in a letter to a friend: "We
cannot ask a man what he will do, and if we should, and he should
answer us, we should despise him for it." [NOTE: The next
sentence in Lincoln's letter is: "Therefore, we must take a man
whose opinions are known." Lincoln was not speaking in
- 3 -
hypothetical terms. The Supreme Court was preparing to hear the
Legal Tender Cases, which would decide the constitutionality of a
civil war statute authorizing the Treasury to print paper money.
The statute was immensely important to the financing of the war.
Lincoln eventually picked his Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon
P. Chase, who had drafted the statute and urged Congress to enact
it. After his confirmation, Justice Chase cast the deciding vote
and wrote the opinion striking down the Legal Tender Act as
unconstitutional.]
O Governor Cuomo has also recognized: "It is not appropriate
to ask a judge or a candidate for the judgeship to tell you in
advance how he's going to decide a case." "Souter and Senate:
How Far Should Questions Go?", New York Times A16, col. 1 (July
26, 1990).
O The Washington Times has commented: "Judge Thomas is likely
to refrain, as is only proper, from commenting on his personal
and religious views and on cases likely to come before the
Supreme Court." "The personal views of Clarence Thomas,"
Washington Times G2 (July 9, 1991).
- 4 -
MAJOR PAPERS
VIRGINIA
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Ed Grimsley
333 East Grace Street
(o) (804) 649-6304
Richmond, VA 23219
(f) (804) 775-8090
(804) 649-6000
Norfolk Virginian-Pilot
Bill Wood
Post Office box 449
(o) (804) 446-2304
Norfolk, VA 23501
(f) (804) 446-2414
(804) 446-2000
Richmond News Leader
Ross McKenzie
Post Office Box C-32333
(o) (804) 649-6404
Richmond, VA 23293
(f) (804) 775-8072
(804) 649-6000
MISSOURI
Kansas City Star
James Scott
1729 Grand Avenue
(o) (816) 234-4478
Kansas City, MO 64108
(f) (816) 234-4926
(816) 234-4300
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Edward Higgins
900 North Tucker Boulevard
(o) (314) 622-7506
St. Louis, MO 63101
(f) (314) 342-3182
(314) 622-7000
GEORGIA
Atlanta Constitution
Tom Teeten
Post Office Box 4689
(o) (404) 526-5007
Atlanta, GA 30302
(f) (404) 526-5611
(404) 526-5151
Atlanta Journal
Derwood McAllister
Post Office Box 4689
(o) (404) 526-5311
Atlanta, GA 30302
(f) (404) 526-5610
(404) 526-5151
Augusta Herald
Phil Kent
Post Office Box 1928
(o) (404) 724-0851 x227
725 Broad Street
(f) (404) 722-7403
Augusta, GA 30913
(404) 724-0851
MAJOR PAPERS
VIRGINIA
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Ed Grimsley
333 East Grace Street
(o) (804) 649-6304
Richmond, VA 23219
(f) (804) 775-8090
(804) 649-6000
Norfolk Virginian-Pilot
Bill Wood
Post Office box 449
(o) (804) 446-2304
Norfolk, VA 23501
(f) (804) 446-2414
(804) 446-2000
Richmond News Leader
Ross McKenzie
Post Office Box C-32333
(o) (804) 649-6404
Richmond, VA 23293
(f) (804) 775-8072
(804) 649-6000
MISSOURI
Kansas City Star
James Scott
1729 Grand Avenue
(o) (816) 234-4478
Kansas City, MO 64108
(f) (816) 234-4926
(816) 234-4300
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Edward Higgins
900 North Tucker Boulevard
(o) (314) 622-7506
St. Louis, MO 63101
(f) (314) 342-3182
(314) 622-7000
GEORGIA
Atlanta Constitution
Tom Teeten
Post Office Box 4689
(o) (404) 526-5007
Atlanta, GA 30302
(f) (404) 526-5611
(404) 526-5151
Atlanta Journal
Derwood McAllister
Post Office Box 4689
(o) (404) 526-5311
Atlanta, GA 30302
(f) (404) 526-5610
(404) 526-5151
Augusta Herald
Phil Kent
Post Office Box 1928
(o) (404) 724-0851 x227
725 Broad Street
(f) (404) 722-7403
Augusta, GA 30913
(404) 724-0851
NATIONAL NEWSPAPERS
The New York Times
Jack Rosenthal
229 West 43rd Street
(o) (212) 556-1875
New York, NY 10036
(f) (212) 556-4100
(212) 556-1234
The Washington Post
Meg Greenfield
1150 15th Street, NW
(202) 334-7471
Washington, DC 20071
(202) 334-1008
(202) 334-6000
The Wall Street Journal
Melanie Kirkpatrick
200 Liberty St
(o) (212) 416-2553
10281
(f) (212) 416-2658
(212) 416-2000
USA Today
Paul McMasters
1000 Wilson Boulevard
(o) (703) 276-5395
Arlington, VA 22229
(f) (703) 247-3134
(703) 276-3400
The Washington Times
Todd Lindberg
3600 New York Avenue, NE
(o) (202) 636-8815
Washington, DC 20002-1947
(f) (202) 832-2982
(202) 636-3000
THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY
Clarence Thomas, a black,
is Ronald Reagan's chairman of the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
He walks 1 lonely road, not really agreeing
with conservatives or liberais
A
QUESTION
OF
FAIRNESS
/
BY JUAN WILLIAMS
A
S A CHILD IN THE 1950s, CLARENCE THOMAS WORE
the ragged hand-me-downs familiar to many a poor
black child in the segregared South. In the early
1960s. as the first black ever enrolled at Sc John Vianney
Minor Seminary, in Savannah, "Georgia, he wore plain.
neady pressed shirts and slacks, along with an expression
that bespoke a painful shyness. The goatee. the black
leather jacket. and the solidarity with Malcolm X came 1:
Holy Cross College, in Massachusetts, during the late
1960s. Yale Law School and corporate legal work in the
1970s finally brought Thomas a measure of real status and
affluence. Now thirty-eight, and the chairman of the U.S.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
Clarence Thomas dresses in dark, elegant, conservative
business suits. He earns $71,000 a year and. when he is not
being chauffered in a government car, drives a Camaro
IROC-Z. The desk in his Washington office is an impres-
sive structure of polished oak. Behind his leacher chair
stand two flags, one the Stars and Stripes and the other
bearing the legend "Don't Tread on Me." It is an apt
motto for the head of an agency charged with ensuring that
discrimination based on mce, sex, age. religion. or national
origin does not occur in the workplace. and that should it
occur appropriate steps are taken to seek redress.
The leaders of many civil-rights and women's groups
wonder how seriously Clarence Thomas takes that morto.
Indeed. some of them loarhe Thomas. He is, after all. I
member of the Reagan Administration-its second-high-
est-ranking black. He is the top federal official charged
with curbing discrimination in the private sector Every
American company with more than fifteen employees
must adhere to guidelines set by the EEOC on how to
train. hire. and promote women, minorities. the elderly
07.02/91 14:42 FAX 212 326 5420
US NEWS WORLD
THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY
THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY
and the handicapped. Thomas not only shapes and en-
mal networks among whites that facilitate advancement).
forces those guidelines but helps to define Reagan Admin-
But while Thomas may share the resentment of other
istration policies with respect to black America generally.
middle-class blacks. he does not share much else. He has
policies that most blacks and white liberals abhor Hod-
his own ideas about how to deal with racism and discrimi-
ding Carter III. an official in the Carter Administration and
nation. and those ideas have made him less 2 radical of the
now 2 syndicated columnist, recently characterized
far right than ideologically sui generis. He does not, deep
Thomas's performance 35 similar to that of the "chicken-
down, share the Reagan Administration's professed belief
eating prenchers' who gladly parroted the segregationists'
in a "colorblind" society, because he believes that such 2
line in exchange for 2 fcw crumbs from the white man's
society probably cannot be achieved. It is unlikely that
table."
whites will ever fully accept blacks as equals, in his opin-
And yet as I discovered in 2 series of interviews span-
ion, and so blacks should prepare to do for themselves: by
ning Thomas's nearly five years in office, Thomas does
making black schools into rigorous training grounds. by in-
take seriously the stated responsibilities of his position.
vesting in black businesses. by working for black corpora-
He simply wishes to change what the word discrimination
tions, and by living in black neighborhoods. Forget the III-
means in the EEOC's official lexicon from what it has
ditional pressure tactics-demonstrations boycotts.
meant for more than two decades. And even though he is a
lobbying by civil-rights groups-that are meant CO gain 3
committed supporter of President Reagan, Thomas brings
share of power wealth and influence in white American
to his job 2 view of race relations in the United States that
institutions.
Ronald Rengan probably does nor suspect he harbors. The
Thomas's ideas have come to Washington at a time
President's director of the EEOC is something of of black
when the United States is entering what might be called
nationalist is well as 2 sad, lonely. troubled. and deeply
the post-Romantic period of the American civil-rights
pessimistic public servant.
movement. Ronald Reagan has won two terms in the
Ultimately, he said 9 me one day, tuming away as if R
White House with little support from black voters. He
avoid revealing some private hurt, it doesn't matter that
owes nothing to the black electorate. He rarely speaks to
black and white Americans are unlikely ever to see each
black groups and never meets with civil-rights leaders. Yes
other 3S anything but blacks and whites. It doesn't matter
Thomas's racial agenda suits the Reagan Administration's
that 3 black man in America is only rarely judged on the
agenda just fine. Thomas is an opponent of busing. argu-
basis of his character rather than that of his color It does
ing that black children gain nothing from simply sitting
not really marter that the dream of racial integration-of
next to whites and can do quite well in their own schools.
uplift through educationi, of gradual absorption into the so-
He is 2 critic of the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown
cial and economic mainstream-has not worked for most
V. Board of Education, which declared the segregation of
black Americans. even for those who, like him. have
public schools to be illegal. Thomas thinks that the Court's
leaped the boundaries of the ghetto and, it would seem,
ruling was based on the assumption that any all-black
"made it" in I white warid. For when you get right down
school had to be inferior to an integrated school. (Thomas.
to it. Thomas said. successful blacks don't particularly like
a single parent, sends his son to an integrated private
the kind of integration that whites have crafted for them in
school in the Washington suburbs but insists that whether
the past thirty years. Increasing numbers of middle-class
the school is integrated. all-black. or virtually all-white is
blacks see integration simply as window dressing. blacks
irrelevant, and that he chose the school he did only in the
may be present and visible, but only 3 few have any real
interest of obtaining the best education for his son.)
power
Thomas is also against affirmative action to get more
On this point Clarence Thomas accurately captures the
blacks into U.S. corporations. contending that affirmative
frustration of many middle-class blacks: people who are
action-meaning goals and timetables for employers who
educated. employed in chailenging and high-paying posi-
have hired few. or have never hired, blacks-no: only is
tions. and vet somehow still angry. The anger is usually in-
window dressing but also has failed to help the mass of
explicable to their white friends and colleagues. The rea-
poor black people get into the mainstream economy. AE:-
son for it quite simply. is race. "There is nothing you can
mative action, he believes. has primarily meant more mon-
do to get past black skin," Thomas said. -I don't care how
ey for a few qualified blacks, usually the scions of the
educated you are, how good you are at what you do-
already well-to-do. Thomas fights angrily against require-
you'll never have the same contacts or opportunities.
ments that employers alter tests to allow as many blacks as
you never be seen as cqual to whites." Ln interviews and
whites to pass. These prescriptions strike him as "assum-
in poils middle-class blacks repeatedly come off as resent-
ing that blacks lack intelligence" and that they "can't per-
ful about their lives in white America: angry at the pleasure
form as well as whites." Lowering standards on tests. he
some whites ake in the progress made by blacks (even 25
says. may help a few blacks get a few good jobs. but it also
black families continue to take in about fifty-nine cents for
puts the federal imprimatur on the idea that educated
event dollar taken white families): angry. too. that
blacks can't compete, and therefore lends credence to :-
Extended Page
:.
(where such blacks as chere are feel shur out of the infor- en black colleges and universities rather than press white
72
FEBRUARY 1987
THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY
schools to admit more blacks. White liberais. who want to
many Hispanics and women as well-Thomas refuses to
end "dual" school systems in the South. should "leave
sce civil rights as a matter of corporate struggle and group
black people alone."
equity. Are blacks. Hispanics, and women. as groups. vic-
Thomas stands in the tradition of Booker T. Washing-
tims of discrimination on the job, as evidenced by group
ton. who argued against integrationists like W.E.B. Du-
staristies on hiring, promotion. and pay? Thomas is not very
Bois earlier in this century. Washington contended that
much interested in this question. What about an individual
freed black slaves should remain in their own southern
who claims discrimination? Here, and here alone. 2 black
communities. work hard. and elop their own farms and
or 3 woman might find Thomas to be 3 friend in court.
businesses. Thomas favors strengthening black businesses
in which employers can amass capital and employees can
make it on their own without the stigma of being labeled
"one of the blacks" in the firm. Thomas believes that the
most significant progress made by the American civii-
C
LARENCE THOMAS WAS SENT TO LIVE WITH HIS
grandfather, Myers Anderson, when he was seven
years old. His father had long before left for Phila-
rights movement is due to the individual efforts of black
delphia: his mother had remarried, and her new husband
men and women. standing firm in the face of overt rac-
didn't want children from the previous marriage around.
ism and demanding their rights
Thomas, his mother, and broth-
as Americans. Thomas purs little
er had been living in a room off
stock in rulings by the Supreme
an alley in Savannah for about 3
Court. decisions made in the
year. Before that the children
White House. or even the good
had lived in Pinpoint. 2 run-
will of whites who support inte-
down town outside Savannah.
gration. Like Booker T. Wash-
with 30 aunt. Thomas remem-
ington. Thomas puts his faith in
bers eating cornflakes several
the ability of black people to use
times a day, wandering the
their minds and their!muscles to
streets, playing hooky. Dis-
do for themselves. He quotes
played prominently in Clarence
from memory these words of
Thomas's office is a photograph
Maicolm X: "The American
of Myers Anderson: 3 muscular
black man should be focusing his
older man in a white undershirt.
every effort toward building his
standing ready to go to work.
OIR businesses and decent
"When the civil-rights people
homes for himself. As other eth-
indict me," Thomas said soon
nic groups have done. let the
after his grandfather's death, in
black people. wherdver possi-
1983, "the man they are indict-
ble. however possible patronize
ing is that man. Let them call
their own kind. hire their own
him from the grave and indict
kind. and start in those wavs to
him."
build UP the black rabe's ability
When Thomas and his brother
to do for itself. Thads the only
went to live with their grand-
way the American black man is ever going to get re-
father in Savannah, in 1956, it was the first time that they
spect
had ever lived in 2 house with a bathroom. It was their first
Clarence Thomas. in sum. is 1 man who does not see in-
experience of three square meals a day. Their grandfather
tegracion 25 the canades for the problems of black Amer-
had built his own house, and, although he could barely
ica. The familiar integrationist agitation of black civil-
read or write, he was a strong advocate of education. Clar-
rights leaders leaves him cold. He agrees with Reagan's
ence could no longer miss school. Anderson, 3 devout
characterization of the civil-rights leaders as old men fo-
Catholic. paid $30 a year for the Thomas boys to attend an
mending discontent B justify their own "rather good posi-
all-black Catholic school. run by white nuns. Every after-
nons. "The issue is economics-not who likes you."
noon at three it was straight home to change clothes and
Thomas has told me. "And when you have the economics.
help Myers deliver ice and oil. In the evenings, after wash-
people do have 1 way of changing their artitudes toward
ing dishes. Thomas went he remembers. to the library for
you. I don't see how the civil-rights people today can claim
blacks, which had been built by the Carnegies. (Blacks
Malcolm X IS one of their own. Where does he sav black
were barred from the Savannah Public Library.) "I used to
people should go begging the Labor Department for jobs?
run to the library to Hip through the pages and dream.
He
hell
The
1:00
Extended - age
Above all-and perhaps this is the main reason why he
B read this, be sophisticated enough to deal with these
is regarded with such disdain by so many blacks. and so
kinds of things." Although Myers Anderson was nearly il-
FEBRUARY 1987
73
THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY
literate. Clarence came to appreciate that his grandfather
ethical model. But, Thomas told me, "After lights out
had not let segregation or 2 lack of schooling stand in the
someone would yell. 'Smile, Clarence, so we can see you.'
way of his living 3 decent life. His grandfather, 11 strong
The statement wasn't the bad part, it was no one saying
Democrat had been involved in local efforts to get voting
'Shut up.' On Thursday afternoons. when students went
rights for blacks, and he voted religiously.
to town with their friends, Thomas was left alone. Movie
Clarence learned other lessons from his grandfather
theaters were still segregated; to eat at a restaurant with
after a visit up North to see some relatives, who were now
classmates would have caused a stic
shelved in housing projects and living on welfare. "He'd
Thomas remembers a "self-hate" stage. where "you
say, 'Damn welfare that relief!-Man ain't got no busi-
hate yourself for being part of a group that's gotten the hell
ness on relief as long as me can work."
kicked our of them." He tried to fit in. He avoided every
Southern society, both black and white, had another
form of stereotypical behavior arributed to blacks. He
view of Clarence and his grandfather Black Savannah soci-
took pains to speak perfectly-not in slang. not loudly. He
cty, Clarence Thomas recalls bitterly, knew him as ABC-
suressed academic achievement. But acceptance did not
America's Blackest Child ("and you have to remember that
come. When he left the seminary. he held a conviction he
for someone to call you black in the sixties. that meant se-
has carried since: there is nothing 3 black man can do to be
rious business"). He WES ridiculed not only for his C.T-
accepted by whites. Consequently, despite his anger at
tremely dark complexion but also for his hair-they called
segregation, he does not automatically grant that integra-
it "nigger naps - and thick lips. Thomas's grandfather
tion is good for black people. Thomas wants to know in ev-
endured worse. "I remember this lady came up to the
ery instance what integration means for blacks. If it means
house-Miss Morgan." Thomas told me one day. "Her
losing the alternative of going B their own schools. running
husband was noted for being fairly mean. She drove up in
their own businesses," then he doesn't like it. He has too
one of those grea: big Buick Electras. Granddaddy was out
many scars from episodes in which. in the name of integra-
in the field. You see 1 car driving up and you always won-
tion, he was the only black. Today he says, "The whole push
der who it is. because #C had 2 dirt road leading up to the
to assimilate simply does not make sense 9 me."
house-vou see all the dust and everything. She said.
Thomas's skepticism about integration was heightened
Myers. bow." And you could see him seethe. He looked
in 1967, when he enrolled at Immaculate Conception
around and saw his little kids there. You could see him
Seminary in Missouri to continue 'his training for the
seethe. People Say what kind of manhood does it take to
priesthood. He stayed only eight months. Martin Luther
vell back and get mad. But what must it have taken for him
King, Jr, was shot in April of 1968. As Thomas entered 3
not only to take the insult but the stares from his kids see-
room that day, he heard one white seminarian say. "Good.
ing him being called 3 boy. The most significant things [in
I hope the son of a bitch dies." That was the end of the
civil rights] were things that I saw day-to-day, not the pro-
seminary. Alienated from whites. alienated from the kids
tests downtown or in Washington."
in his neighborhood as a result of having been away at
Integration touched Thomas's life for the first time in
school. and alienated, finally, from his grandfacher over
tenth grade. His grandfather decided that he wanted Clar-
leaving the seminary. Thomas for 3 while and then
ence. 3 good student. to attend an all-white Catholic
went north to Holy Cross. He paid his tuition with 3 com-
boarding school. St. John Vianney Minor Seminary.
bination of scholarships. work-study (washing dishes in
Thomas was admirted without incident. He got excellent
the kitchen). and loans. His militancy became pre-
grades and was ? star quarterback on the school's football
nounced. He led the free-breakfast program for black
team. His grandfather bragged that his grandsen would be-
schoolchildren in Worcester Massachusetts. dallied with
come 1 priest. To Anderson, Clarence became 2 racial
the Black Panthers. and urged a black walkout at the col-
symbol. On vacations His grandfacher would take him to
lege over the issue of investment in South Africa. All the
the local NAACP meetings and have him read his grades
while he kept up 2 near perfect academic record. Eventu-
aloud: "He thought I ₹25 living proof that black people
ally Thomas decided be wanted to be a lawyer and he was
were 35 good 35 white people."
accepted by Yale Law School.
In his own mind. however, Thomas was in 2 state of cri-
At Yale. Thomas avoided his professors and sat in the
sis. He had never been pround many whites. Now he was
back of the classroom. He did not want to be identified as
living with them. He saw how many more possessions they
3 black student-one who perhaps had been admitted and
had. how the other boys commanded respect as seminar-
must be coddled precisely because he was black. He
ians in a CORT. where be was at best ignored. (Thomas is
shunned courses touching on civil rights. instead studying
members 11 quote from Richard Wright's Black Metropolis:
tax law, legal accounting. antitrust law. and property law.
"But the American педтр. child of the culture that crushes
He remembers feeling the "monkey was on my back" be-
him. wants to be free inja way that white men are free. For
cause classmates believed that he and the dozen or so oth-
him to wish otherwise would be unnatural. unthinkable.")
er blacks in his class were there to satisfv the school's so-
Most devasting of all were the racist jokes and slights
cial-policy goals. not because of their academic
THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY
mously in the library. he earned good grades. He was less
A
MONTH BEFORE RONALD REAGAN'S FIRST INAU-
impressed by the hard-edged minutize of the law than by
guration Clarence Thomas paid his way to San Fran-
the notion that he was competing successfully with the
cisco for a conference of black conservatives. Rea-
best white minds. Yale gave him renewed confidence even
gan's overwhelming election victory, won with almost no
as he was. in effect. hiding his face to avoid calling arten-
black support. had put the spotlight on the few blacks who
cion to his race. Confusion and contradiction reigned in his
counted themselves in his camp. Except for Thomas
life. He felt alienated from 1 system that was trying to
Sowell, the economist, most of the black conservatives
open itself to him. and became more of a loner than he had
were. like Thomas, relatively unknown. They took glee-
been before.
fully to the sudden attention from the press. I was then an
Even as Thomas nurned inward. he was being urged
editorial writer for The Washington Post, and I flew to San
into 2 position of leadership by other black students. who
Francisco to hear the policy arguments being made by
were pressing Yale to accept more blacks. Thomas did not
Ronald Reagan's black admirers.
take the assignment. He saw that many of the blacks who
Thomas was the most interesting of a very self-impor-
started Yale Law School did not graduate. Most of those
cant crowd, because he was so brucally candid. In discuss-
who did graduare were the sons and daughters of black
ing welfare policy he explained that his opposition to pub-
Lawyers. doctors, and teachers. Thomas could not justify
lic assistance was an ourgrowth of his sister's experience on
leading protests to get more Yale law degrees for middle-
welfare in Georgia. "She gers mad when the mailman is
class blacks. -If quotas help you. fine," he has told me. "If
late with her welfare check," he said. "That is how depen-
they make your life wonderful. fine. If they get you a
dent she is. What's worse is that now her kids feel entitled
BMW or Mercedes. say that is why you want quotes. Man.
to the check too. They have no motivation for doing better
quotas are for the black middle class. But look at what's
or getting out of that situation." His frankness in reflecting
happening R the masses. Those are my people. They are
on his own position as 3 black conservative is, in retro-
just where they were before any of these policies."
spect, touched by irony. "If I ever went to work for the
At the end of law school Thomas felt no debt to whites
EEOC or did anything directly connected with blacks. my
ar Yale for allowing a black man from 2 poor family to go to
career would be irreparably ruined. The monkey would be
school there. The suggestion that his education is proof of
on my back to prove that I didn't have the job because Pm
the good done by affirmative-action policies. executed in
black. People meeting me for the first time would auto-
good faith to end the harmful cycle of broken families, bad
matically dismiss my thinking as second-rate."
schools. and unemployment, angers him. "I don't think
I wrote a column for the Post about Thomas that drew
black people are indebted to anybody for anything. No-
the attention of the Reagan transition team. Various jobs in
body has done us any favors in this country, buddy. This
the Administration were discussed. Thomas, however.
thing about how they let me into Yale-that kind of stuff
was reluctant to move to the executive branch. The col-
offends me. All they did was stop stopping us."
umn had attracted 35 much criticism from the left as inter-
As Yaie ended and job interviews began, Thomas found
est from the right. Thomas was uncomfortable. Finally,
himself singled out again. Recruiters from top firms kept
though, in May of 1981, despite his misgivings, he joined
mentioning that their firms would allow him to do pro
the Administration as the Department of Education's as-
boco work. He bolted from some interviews in anger.
sistant secretary for civil rights. He kept a low profile and
White students told him pro bono work was not mentioned
generally avoided the press. But he stirred controversy
in their interviews. MI went to law school to be a lawyer,
among civil-rights activists from the start. For example, he
not 2 social worker ISI want to be a social worker I'll do it
set out rather quickly to overtum the government's policy
on my own time." Thomas ultimately took a job with an-
of pressing southern states to unify their separate white
other Yale alumnus, John Danforth, now 3 U.S. senator
and black college systems, arguing that an end to the so-
but at the time Missouri's Republican attomey general.
called dual system would mean an end to the historically
Danforth didn't mention pro bono work He promised
black colleges that had educated a majority of the nation's
Thomas no special treaument because of his race. Thomas
black professionals. Civil-rights groups saw him as playing
became counsel 5 the state department of revenue and
into the hands of southern white separatists. Thomas did
the as commission. He avoided work on any racial issues.
not have time to ride our the storm. Eight months after
insisting that he would be judged 3 second-rate intellect
he began his job at the Department of Education, the
by people who would assume that he was involved only
President nominated him to head the EEOC. He
because he was black "Danforth was 2 good guv." Thom-
became the only black with any real power in the Reagan
as said once. "He ignored the hell out of me."
Administration on matters involving civil rights. (Clarence
Thomas worked for the State of Missouri for almost
Pendleton. the chairman of the U.S. Civil Rights Commis-
three years, and then went to work for Monsanto, the
sion, is empowered only to conduct studies and make
chemical company. In 1979 he rejoined Danforth, in the
recommendations.)
Senator's Washington office. again working on non-civil-
Soon after Thomas's nomination he and I began meet-
rights issues. such as energy and the environment And he
ing regularly for informal conversations. most of them on
14:46
FAX
212
328
5420
US NEWS WORLD
THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY
and Thomas thought that the conversations would be ad-
paid less than janitors because secretarial work is a tradi-
vantageous to him. Eventually we began to calk easily and
tionally female occupation? Should 1 business be permit-
at length. He was outspoken and frank in discussing his
ted to promote blacks who don't pass qualifying tests. on
shifting thoughts on civil rights, his frustrations, and his
the grounds that five times as many blacks as whites fail
worries about his status within the Administration.
such tests? These are the kinds of questions that come be-
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was
fore the EEOC. For more than two decades an established
created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as a means to en-
part of American corporate life has consisted in trying to
force statutory prohibitions against job discrimination on
keep the EEOC at bay. Last year the commission pro-
the basis of race. sex, color, religion. or national origin.
cessed 66,000 complaints. Whether the EEOC files 2 law-
The commission has emembers, who review every case
suit in any particular case depends largely on Clarence
recommended by the EEOC's general counsel as possible
Thomas's conception of fairness.
material for a Lawsuit All the members are political ap-
Thomas told me a story from his boyhood to illustrate
pointees. As the chairman, Thomas oversees the agency's
what fairness means to him He was on the back porch.
lawvers and regulators-a significant source of influence.
playing blackjack for pennies with some other boys. As the
The EEOC's power is limited to investigating 1 charge and
game went on. one boy kept winning. Thomas finally saw
seeking 2 settlement with the employer The agency can
how: the cards were marked. The game was stopped.
subpoena evidence, take testimony, and file suit on behalf
There were angry words. Cards were thrown. From all
of 2 defendant or a class of defendants. The EEOC cannot
sides fast fists snatched back lost money. There could be
itself fine or penalize the employer any other way. The
no equitable redistribution of the pot. The strongest, fast-
agency also has a congressional mandate to deal with em-
est hands, including those of the boy who had been cheat-
ployer discrimination on the basis of age. as well as to in-
ing, got most of the pile of pennies. Some of the boys
vestigate violations of the Equal Pay Act (which requires
didn't get their money back. The cheater was threatened.
that equal pay be given to persons doing the same job).
The boys who snatched pennies that they had not lost
Should General Motors be prodded to train more wom-
were also threatened. But no one really wanted to fight-
en weiders? Should companies. reasoning that older work-
they wanted to keep playing cards. So a different deck was
ers have pension income to make up for 2 loss of salary. be
brought out and shuffied. and the game resumed with a
allowed to lay of the elderiy first? Are secretaries being
simple promise of no more cheating."
LIKEWISE
The cond is like 2 mackerel skin tonight
are unique-there is nothing like a dam.
the mackerel like a beaded evening bag.
Ditto inbreeding. ice ages. industrialization.
This is like that! that is like this. oh.
joshua trees, lagoons, and the law
let's call the whole thing off and take it straight.
that to liken a lichen is cautological.
nothing is like anything else.
Indeed. the rule of diminishing simile holds
Even the parrotiand the apish ape
that all of these are idiosyncrasies:
mirror mimic. and do like-unmatched.
the Leakeys, legumes, maize, marsupials. and moose.
To begin: algne, abalone, alewife-
Virtually nothing is extraneous here-
each the spitting umage of itself.
not orchids. ooze. pampas. nor peat.
Likewise beedes (potato. scarab. and whirligig)
This is the world of plenitude and power-
Nothing even comes close :0 barre! cacrus:
every bit of it our of this world:
nothing is moreloriginal than 3 bog.
the rain and rattlers, sperm. swamps. and swans.
more mre than the cougar and crane
As we now inch toward an end-vectors
save all the above named.
and a winter that figures to be like no other.
I've never seen anything like it-dusthowls. deen
Set the selfsame earth is to your liking
the descent of man and estuaries.
and let us continue-yeast, vuccas, zoons.
flakes of snow (ho Two like). fire.
all things like, beyond compare.
E2I 927703. and guils.
07/02/91 FAI 212 326 5420
LS WORLD
THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY
That story. Thomas said, is a lot like the story of race re-
hundreds of local, individual acts of discrimination.
lations in America. Whites had an unfair advantage. But in
Thomas would require every woman or black whom that
1964, with the passage of the Civil Rights Act, the govem-
employer had discriminated against to come to the govern-
ment stopped the cheating. The question now is. Should
ment and prove his or her allegarion. The burden is on the
the government return the ill-gorten gains to the losers—
individual. The remedy is back pay and a job. "Anyone
the blacks, the Hispanics, and the women who were
asking the government to do more is barking up the wrong
cheated by racism and sexism? Does fairness mean reach-
aree," Thomas says.
ing back into the nation's past to undo the damage? Is the
Thomas has made it EEOC policy to shy away from
son entitled to recompense if the mother was a brilliant
class-action suits. He doesn't want to see blacks treated as
businesswoman who could not find a bank that would lend
numbers. So he favors aggressive attacks on employers
her money? How about the grandson of a black doctor who
only when they are proved to have discriminated against
never earned as much as white practitioners but lived the
particular persons. "My view is that the most vulnerable
life of the elite among blacks? Should American businesses
unit in our society is the individual. And blacks. in my
have to compensate for the legacy of slavery-the poor.
opinion being one of the most vulnerable groups. should
undereducated blacks living in dreary. stultifying ghettos
fight like hell to preserve individual freedoms so people
that perperuate perverse values? How would society,
can't gang up on us. Blacks are the least favored group in
especially the society of government and business.
this society. Suppose we did band together. group against
make amends, even if making amends were its fervent
group-which group do you think would win: We're
goal?
breaking down everything. ten percent for the blacks,
Thomas believes that government simply cannot make
twenty-five percent for the women, two percent for the
amends. and cherefore should not try. The best it can do is
aged, everything broken our according to groups. Which
to deal a clean deck and let the game resume. enforcing
group always winds up with the least? Which group always
the rules as they have now come to be understood. "There
seems to get the hell kicked out of it? Blacks. and maybe
is no governmental solution." Thomas said. "It hasn't
American Indians.
been used on any group- And I will ask those who proffer 2
"Playing the group game builds up racial conflict. That's
governmental solution to show me which group in the his-
what segregation was all about Bur now blacks are out
tory of this country was puiled up and pur into the main-
here raising all this Cain for grouprights, and the ones who
stream of the economy with governmental programs. The
benefit the most, I think, would probably be white fe-
Irish weren't The Jews weren't Use what was used 9 get
males. because they are the best-prepared group."
others into the economy. Show us the precedent for all this
Clarence Thomas has resolved to play by the rules.
experimentation on our race."
Once again one sees the boy on the porch. the respect for
He returned to the idea of the cheater on the porch: "I'
method and procedure. Thomas is consistent. Because the
would be lying to you ifI said char I didn't want sometimes
courts in the past have mandated goals. timetables, and
to be able to cheat in favor of those of US who were cheat-
quotas, and because these are therefore the law of the
ed. Bur you have to ask yourself whether, in doing that,
land, Thomas's EEOC continues to enforce (though it
you do violence 9 de safe harbor, and that is the Constitu-
may occasionally challenge) such decisions. This stance
tion. which says you are to protect an individual's rights
has sometimes left Thomas isolated wichin the Reagan
no matter what Once you say that we can violate some-
Administration. But when it comes to new business be-
body else's rights in order to make up for what hap-
fore the commission, there is little in Clarence Thomas's
pened B blacks or other races or other groups in history,
record with which a right-wing Administration could find
then are you setting 3 precedent for having certain cir-
fault.
cumstances in which you can overlook another person's
In "fiscal year" 1980 (October 1, 1979, to September 30,
rights?"
1980) the EEOC was settling 32.1 percent of the cases that
Individuals who are proven victims of discrimination
it closed, whereas the rate was 13.6 percent in the first half
have Clarence Thomas's EEOC on their side in the fight
of 1986. The proportion of cases in which the EEOC find-
But people who argue that they are victimized in corporate
ing was "no cause" (for a lawsuit) increased from 28.5 per-
life as part of historical, across-the-board discrimination
cent to 56.6 percent over the same period. A total of 22.3
against 3 group find little sympathy at his agency. It could
percent fewer cases were filed in court in 1985 than in
be, Thomas says, that blacks and women are generally un-
1981. The decline in the number of cases pleased Thom-
prepared to do certain kinds of work by their own choice.
as. He had turned the agency's attention away from cases
It could be that blacks choose not to study chemical engi-
based on statistical evidence of discrimination. Thomas
neering and that women choose to have babies instead of
was sensitive R reports that white managers often feei
going to medical school.
they cannot find enough qualified minority candidates.
If an employer over the years denies jobs B hundreds of
Perhaps an employer in the Southwest fires more Hispan-
qualified women or blacks because he does not want wom-
ics and women simply because he made an effort to hire
or
blacks
working
for
him
ie
:-
the
first
07
14:48 FAX 212 328 5420
US NEWS WORLD
THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY
who can't do the job will be fired. To sue an employer be-
with an out-and-out racist anyway to one who is racist be-
cause he keeps the door open to people who may be less
hind your back.") He opposed Attorney General William
educated and have work experience would be to dis-
French Smith when Smith refused to comply with a
courage him from giving those people a chance.
twelve-year-old federal law requiring federal agencies to
submit annual statistical analyses of the number of minor-
ity-group members working in the executive branch. And,
HOMAS'S TENURE AT THE EEOC HAS ALWAYS BEEN
with mixed success. he has set himself against Justice De-
T
rocky. but it has been rocky for different reasons at
partment attempts to overtum certain existing local quota
different times. His first task was simply getring a
plans for hiring and promotion. At one point in 1984 there
hold on an agency with 3,100 employees and forty-eight
was talk within the Administration of forcing Thomas's
local offices. By all accounts the agency Thomas inherited
resignation, or at the very least of nominating 3 replace-
was administratively disheveled, with a long backleg of
ment when Thomas's term expired in 1985.
discrimination cases. Thomas seems to have been happy
Though it was at first only dimly perceived, however.
with unpublicized bureaucratic chores, happy B be left R
Thomas was transforming the nature of the EEOC-mov-
himself. On his way into work every day he would have his
ing it firmly toward the Reagan right. The fundamental
driver stop at a Catholic church, where he would spend a
change was in the type of lawsuit that the commission WES
few minutes alone in prayer. He does no: attend church on
likely to bring. In the past the EEOC had brought a num-
Sundays. ("God is all right," he says. "It's the people I
ber of celebrated class-action cases against such major
don't like.") Thomas rarely spoke with the press. He
companies as AT&T and General Electric. The agency
worked privately, almost anonymously. letting the Justice
had alleged historical and widespread discrimination and
Department and the White House make political pro-
sought changes in hiring practices, along with back pay for
nouncements on civil-rights policy. In the Administration,
the victims. Those cases ended with multimillion-doliar
Thomas was often referred to as "the other Clarence," dis-
sertiements, and goals and timetables to govern future hir-
tinguishing him from the more visible Clarence Pendle-
ing. Now the EEOC focused on simply enforcing the law
ton. at the Civil Rights Commission. As one of the very
in cases brought by individuals who sought to prove specif-
few prominent blacks in the Reagan Administration,
ic acts of discrimination. The shift in emphasis fit Admin-
he was criticized internally for his initial lack of 2 public
istration policy. Fewer class-action suits inevitably meant
role.
far less use of goals, timetables. and quotas to remedy
Once. during lunch at the White House mess. William
findings of discrimination. It also meant fewer attempts to
Bradford Reynolds. the assistant attorney general for civil
stop employers from giving tests, setting standards, or re-
rights. was loudly urging him to be more aggressive.
cruiting in a manner that caused disproportionately low
Thomas snapped back. "Don't tell me what to dc. Brad.
numbers of blacks. women, and other minorities to ge:
All I have to do is die and stay black."
jobs.
If Thomas hoped to sit out the war of words between
Thomas held to his version of fairness: individual vic-
the Reagan Administration and the nation's leading civil-
tims of discrimination should be helped by the govern-
rights groups. he was only partially successful. Criticized
ment, but classes of people who theoretically were victim-
by black leaders as 3n Uncle Tom, Thomas from time to
ized by the nation's history of racism or sexism should not
time struck back. He publicly castigated civil-rights lead-
be helped. Indeed, Thomas viewed with deep misgivings
ers who "bitch. bitch. birch. moan and moan and whine"
any finding of discrimination based on broad statistics-
about the Reagan Administration. He characterized pro-
once the most effective weapon wielded by the EEOC.
tests against apartheid in South Africa and against the Ad-
The commission had for many years used statistics to put
ministration's policy of "constructive engagement" as
employers on the defensive for not hiring minorities or
less important than efforts at home B improve education
women in proportion to their numbers in the pool of quali-
for blacks and end poverty and drug abuse among
fied applicants. Statistics shifted the burden of proof from
them.
the individual. who was charging discrimination. to the
Meanwhile. Thomas found himself in occasional dis-
company, which had to prove that it was not discriminat-
agreements with other members of the Administration.
ing. Statistics had been employed vigorously by the
Thomas freely blamed the Justice Department for setting
EEOC ever since a favorable 1971 Supreme Court ruling
a "negative agenda" on civil rights during the President's
in Griggs V. Duke Power Co.
first term. He conceded to me that the Administration
Soon Thomas began to look at the use of statistics in the
"biew it by supporting etx-exempt status for 2 segrega-
EEOC's own Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection
cionist school. Bob Jones University. He stated frankly that
Procedure, which has been used by the courts as an au-
he was working with racists. though he claimed that this
choritative interpretation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
hardly mattered. since. he said. there are some racists in
In September of 1984 Thomas led the five EEOC com-
every Administration. (TYes. there are 2 loc of racists in the
missioners in 3 vote to review the guidelines. because. in
07/02/91
14:49 FAX 212 328 5420
US NEWS WORLD
THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY
garded the guidelines as a landmark in equal-opportunity
didn't prove Sears guilty of discrimination. The disparity
law. It also had reverberations in the corporate world. Law-
in hiring figures between men and women could, he said,
yers had become accustomed to the Uniform Guidelines as
be due to cultural differences between men and women,
the one and only set of rules for playing the affirmative-
educational levels, commuring patterns. and other "pre-
action game-for avoiding race- and sex-bias lawsuits
vious events." Lawyers for Sears actually tried to have
brought by the government The guidelines require that
Thomas testify in their behalf, hoping he would damage
any prerequisite for employment-a test. an interview. a
his agency's case. However, the judge refused the motion
physical standard. ora performance evaluation-result in a
to take his deposition, ruling that what Thomas believed.
selection rate for any race. sex. or ethnic group within 20
even as the head of the EEOC, was irrelevant. In February
percent of the selection rate for the group with the highest
of 1985. to Thomas's satisfaction. the EEOC lost the case.
rate. If 3 hundred whites apply for a job and sixty are se-
But Thomas has agreed to have his agency file an appeal
lected, that is a 60 percent hiring rate for qualified white
on the basis of what his lawyers have told him are mistakes
applicants. An employer with forty qualified black appli-
made by the uial judge. Thomas told me that he decided
cants would have to hire twenty-a 50 percent hiring
to go along with the appeal because if he didn't "the liber-
rate-to come up with a hiring rate for blacks that is within
als would be all over me." He does not want it said that he
20 percent of the hiring rate for whites.
didn't give the case every chance to succeed.
In justifying the review of the guidelines, Thomas
In June of 1985 Thomas removed another potential
wrote that they were
source of controversy be-
founded on the premise
tween employers and the
"that but for unlawful
government by leading
discrimination by an em-
the commissioners to re-..
ployer. there would not
ject the validity of the no-
be variarions in the rates
tion of "comparable
of hire or promotion of
worth": the idea that
people of different races,
people who are doing dif-
sexes. or national ori-
ferent jobs should never-
gins.
[The guide-
theless be paid equally if
lines] also seem to 25-
their jobs require compa-
sume some inherent
rable effort. responsibil-
inferiority of blacks. His-
ity, skill, and training.
panics. other minorities.
Traditionally female oc-
and women. by suggest-
cupations. such as reach-
ing that they should not
ing, could be made to pay
be held to the same stan-
the same wage as tradi-
dards as other people.
tionally male occupa-
even if those standards
cions, such as construc-
are race and sex neutral" Last year the EEOC completed
tion. Women's groups have contended that jobs that
10 internal review of the guidelines. but it has not vet act-
usually go to men pay more because of the old-fashioned
ed on this report.
idea that 2 man is supporting a family while a woman is
Thomas was roundly criticized by civii-rights groups for
merely working for pin money, or supplemental income.
subjecting the guidelines to scruciny. He cited the all-
Thomas countered that Title VII of the Civil Rights
black baskerball team at Georgetown University, 2 school
Act outlawed disparities in pay only when an employer
with an overwhelmingly white student body, as an exam-
paid men and women different wages for doing the iden-
ple of how statistics could mislead. Would anyone, he
tical job. The agency's decision closed a potential avenue
asked at 2 congressional hearing, charge that Georgetown
of redress for women for the remainder of the Reagan
was discriminating against white baskerball players?
Administration.
In newspaper interviews Thomas spoke freely of his
In July of 1985 five congressmen and three senators, in-
disdain for the statistical basis of an ongoing EEOC suit.
cluding Senator Edward Kennedy, the ranking Democrat
begun before Thomas joined the commission. against
on the Senate's Committee on Labor and Human Re-
Sears, Roebuck & Co. The class-action suit claimed that
sources. asked the General Accounting Office to investi-
Sears discriminated against women because it hired 2 far
gate the EEOC. They were "deeply concerned chat the
higher proportion of men chan women for sales jobs, even
EEOC's ability to effectively attack discrimination in the
though more women applied for the jobs. Sears. the
workplace [had] been diminished by a recent shift in poli-
EEOC claimed. also promoted fewer women than men to
CV. which may run counter to the intent of Congress in en-
lucrative commissioned sales jobs. The government's suic
acting these remedial statutes." They insisted chat Con-
did not nigintiff i- relied cm_
07.02/91
FAI
212
328
5420
US NEWS WORLD
THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY
They complained that their mandate was "being floured
reversed his earlier position and ordered the EEOC's law-
by the commission."
yers to resume using goals and timetables against employ-
With the arguments between Thomas and his critics
ers found guilty of discrimination. "That's the law of the
growing louder, the EEOC chairman suddenly found him-
land, whether I like it or not," he said. When Metzen-
self warmly received at the Justice Department and the
baum asked about his personal view of affirmative action,
White House. He worked closely with Anomey General
Thomas replied, "Whatever reservations I have are purely
Edwin Meese in pushing for a change in an executive or-
personal. They're subversive literature now." When some
der that requires federal contractors to show that they have
Democrats suggested that Thomas might be merely saying
made efforts to hire minorities and women Meese and
expedient things on the record while off the record in-
Thomas argued that the order amounted to quotas, be-
structing his lawyers not B return to goals and timetables,
cause contractors who failed to hire minorities and women
Thomas privately promised, according to committee
were given goals and timetables that had to be met under
members, to send reports twice a year to the Senate on the
pain of losing government contracts. For the time being
number and types of cases in which the EEOC makes use
the executive order remains in effect, however, because
of hiring and promotion goals and timetables. Despite
Republican political strategists have judged that deleting
such concessions, Thomas remins considerable power to
all suggestion of quotas from the executive order carries
push his agenda at the EEOC-an agenda that amounts to
too high a political price.
curbing federal intervention.
In mid-September, Attorney General Edwin Meese, As-
sistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Bradford Reyn-
AST SUMMER PRESIDENT REAGAN NOMINATED CLAR-
olds, and Senator Strom Thurmond, the former segrega-
L
ence Thomas to a second term as chairman of the
cionist from South Carolina, came to the EEOC's offices to
EEOC. On August 12. 1986, Thomas won Senate
swear in Clarence Thomas. It was an unlikely sight-the
confirmation. The Senate's manimous vote came a week
three white men shaking hands and slapping backs with
after a 14-2 vote by the Labor and Human Resources
Thomas. Reynolds had days earlier attacked Supreme
Committee to recommend Thomas for a second term. The
Court Associate Justice William Brennan as a man seek-
two senators who voted against Thomas in committee
ing "unlimited judicial power to further a personalized
were Howard Metzenbaum. of Ohio, and Paul Simon, of
egalitarian vision of society" through racial preferences
Illinois. Merzenbaum said he opposed Thomas because
and a "liberal social agenda." Meese was about to give a
"he has not brought [to the EEOC] a vigorous determina-
speech encouraging politicians to disregard Supreme
cion to enforce the law.
He has failed to show the kind
Court rulings if they felt the rulings were wrong. Clarence
of leadership which the civil-rights community is entitled
Thomas. in his moment of triumph, stood shoulder-
to." The NAACP and the League of United Latin Ameri-
to-shoulder with his Administration colleagues. None
can Citizens said that Thomas was the key to 2 Reagan Ad-
of the three stayed more than a few minutes at Thomas's
ministration plan to "roll back civil rights."
celebration. But before he left. Reynolds raised his glass.
But the opposition lacked passion. In joint testimony
"Ir's a proud moment for me to stand here," he said, "be-
representatives of other major civil-rights and women's-
cause Clarence Thomas is the epitome of the right kind of
rights groups. ranging from the National Urban League to
affirmative action working the right way."
the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund. said they
Clarence Thomas flinched. Some of his aides looked
did not know of any group involved with civil liberties that
down and shook their heads. After all Thomas had been
wanted Thomas reappointed. However. they said, "given
through in defense of the Administration position on civil
this administration's record [we] have no illusions that a
rights. Reynolds had implicitly dismissed him as an affir-
nominee committed to surong enforcement would replace
mative-action hire. And, worse, Reynolds had thought it a
[Thomas]. This Hobson's choice dilemma does nothing to
compliment. Thomas showed a look of cold hurt-a look
quiet our concerns about the management and policy of
of disgust He folded his arms across his chest and looked
the EEOC for the past five years." The civil-rights groups
away from Reynolds. By the time Meese had said a few
seemed reluctant to demand that Thomas be replaced
words and Thurmond had swom him in. an uneasy smile
even as they listed his faults. Their hesitancy carried the
had returned to Thomas's face. A few days later. when I
day and helped to assure Thomas's confirmation. And at
asked about his reaction to Reynolds's comment, Thomas
the hearings, which were held in July, Thomas stole his
waved his hand, as if swarting away the memory. "I can't
opponents' thunder by telling the committee that he had
pay no attention to Brad," he said.
0
JUDGE CLARENCE THOMAS
Judge Thomas was born on June 23, 1948 in Pinpoint, Georgia,
a rural community outside Savannah, to Leola and M.C. Thomas. He
was reared by his grandparents, Myers and Christine Anderson.
After graduating from high school in 1967, he attended Immaculate
Conception Seminary in Conception Junction, Missouri. He
subsequently entered Holy Cross College in Worcester,
Massachusetts, from which he was graduated with honors in 1971.
In that same year, he enrolled at Yale Law School and was
graduated in 1974.
Following graduation, and until 1977, Judge Thomas served as
an assistant attorney general in the office of Missouri Attorney
General John C. Danforth, where he represented the State of
Missouri before trial and appellate courts, including the Supreme
Court of Missouri. From 1977 until 1979, Judge Thomas worked as
an attorney in the Legal Department of the Monsanto Company. In
1979, he joined the staff of Senator Danforth as a legislative
assistant.
In 1981, Judge Thomas was appointed by President Reagan to
be Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the Department of
Education. A year later, he was appointed Chairman of the Equal
Opportunity Commission. He was reappointed Chairman of the EEOC
in 1986.
In October 1989, Judge Thomas was nominated by President
Bush to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia Circuit.
Judge Thomas was confirmed by the United States Senate on
March 6, 1990, and has served on the Court of Appeals since March
12, 1990. He, his wife Virginia, and his son Jamal live in
Northern Virginia.
JUDGE CLARENCE THOMAS
Judge Thomas was born on June 23, 1948 in Pinpoint, Georgia,
a rural community outside Savannah, to Leola and M.C. Thomas. He
was reared by his grandparents, Myers and Christine Anderson.
After graduating from high school in 1967, he attended Immaculate
Conception Seminary in Conception Junction, Missouri. He
subsequently entered Holy Cross College in Worcester,
Massachusetts, from which he was graduated with honors in 1971.
In that same year, he enrolled at Yale Law School and was
graduated in 1974.
Following graduation, and until 1977, Judge Thomas served as
an assistant attorney general in the office of Missouri Attorney
General John C. Danforth, where he represented the State of
Missouri before trial and appellate courts, including the Supreme
Court of Missouri. From 1977 until 1979, Judge Thomas worked as
an attorney in the Legal Department of the Monsanto Company. In
1979, he joined the staff of Senator Danforth as a legislative
assistant.
In 1981, Judge Thomas was appointed by President Reagan to
be Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the Department of
Education. A year later, he was appointed Chairman of the Equal
Opportunity Commission. He was reappointed Chairman of the EEOC
in 1986.
In October 1989, Judge Thomas was nominated by President
Bush to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia Circuit.
Judge Thomas was confirmed by the United States Senate on
March 6, 1990, and has served on the Court of Appeals since March
12, 1990. He, his wife Virginia, and his son Jamal live in
Northern Virginia.
JUDGE CLARENCE THOMAS
Judge Thomas was born on June 23, 1948 in Pinpoint, Georgia,
a rural community outside Savannah, to Leola and M.C. Thomas. He
was reared by his grandparents, Myers and Christine Anderson.
After graduating from high school in 1967, he attended Immaculate
Conception Seminary in Conception Junction, Missouri. He
subsequently entered Holy Cross College in Worcester,
Massachusetts, from which he was graduated with honors in 1971.
In that same year, he enrolled at Yale Law School and was
graduated in 1974.
Following graduation, and until 1977, Judge Thomas served as
an assistant attorney general in the office of Missouri Attorney
General John C. Danforth, where he represented the State of
Missouri before trial and appellate courts, including the Supreme
Court of Missouri. From 1977 until 1979, Judge Thomas worked as
an attorney in the Legal Department of the Monsanto Company. In
1979, he joined the staff of Senator Danforth as a legislative
assistant.
In 1981, Judge Thomas was appointed by President Reagan to
be Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the Department of
Education. A year later, he was appointed Chairman of the Equal
Opportunity Commission. He was reappointed Chairman of the EEOC
in 1986.
In October 1989, Judge Thomas was nominated by President
Bush to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia circuit.
Judge Thomas was confirmed by the United States Senate on
March 6, 1990, and has served on the Court of Appeals since March
12, 1990. He, his wife Virginia, and his son Jamal live in
Northern Virginia.
INFORMAL BIOGRAPHY
Clarence Thomas was born on June 23, 1948, in a small wood frame
house outside of Savannah, Georgia. The house in which he was
born, as well as the bed, was owned by Annie Crawford, his young
mother's aunt. He was brought into this world by a midwife. His
birth certificate reads simply that he was born in Pinpoint,
Rural. His mother's name was Leola Thomas and is currently Leola
Williams. His father's name is M.C. Thomas. The initials do not
represent additional names. Clarence's father left while he was
still a toddler, and has lived in Philadelphia most of Clarence's
life. Clarence would see him only once during his childhood, at
the age of nine.
For the first six and a half years of his life he lived in
Pinpoint with his mother, her aunt and uncle, together with his
older sister and a younger brother, Myers. They lived in the
same wood frame house in which Clarence was born. The community
of Pinpoint is one of many Black communities outside Savannah,
Georgia. Although development threatens its existence today, in
the late 40's and early 50's it was indeed rural. In Drums and
Shadows - survival studies among the Georgia Negroes, Pinpoint is
described as follows:
"Pinpoint, a Negro community about nine miles
southeast of Savannah is scattered over some
2
twenty or thirty acres on a peninsula
overlooking Shipyard Creek. Many of the
small wooden cabins are neatly whitewashed
and are half hidden by shrubbery and
spreading oaks. Flowers and vegetables are
planted in the most advantageous sunny spots
near the houses and most yards are enclosed
by picket fences, giving a cozy and pleasant
privacy. The lawns, little more than wagon
tracks, twist in and across the settlement.
The informal and haphazard scattering of the
houses, with high shrubbery bordering the
lawns, gives an effect that is pleasing and
unusual.
Pinpoint has a church, a pavilion on the
tidewater creek, and a crab cannery. The
men and women who do not work as domestic
servants at the nearby country places find
employment in the crab cannery or fish and
crab and shrimp for themselves. The life is
quiet, soothed by the smell of salt marsh.
***
3
The people are, almost without exception,
black or dark skinned, proud, upstanding and
loyal, suspicious of strangers but generous
and trusting to friends." (cites omitted).
The house in which Clarence and his family lived was simple, but
always neat and pleasant. For lighting, they used kerosene
lamps, and there were also several electric ceiling lights. They
had no indoor plumbing, and shared an outhouse with several
neighbors. They carried water from a common pump usually in
water buckets. As alluded to in Drums and Shadows, supra, every-
one worked. Women did "day" work, cleaning houses for the whites
who lived nearby. They also shucked oysters and picked crabs.
Kids would often scrub crab barks to earn spending money. The
men were usually day laborers and/or they raked oysters, fished
or crabbed. They also steamed crabs, which the women then
picked. Clarence's mother was among the best crab pickers. His
sister, until recently also picked crabs on a regular basis. As
children, they played under the houses, or in the woods and
marsh. They chased and caught fiddler crabs, and minnows,
climbed trees, and played with makeshift toys.
Clarence started the first grade in September, 1954 at Haven Home
School, which was segregated. Coincidentally, Brown V. Board of
Education was decided that same year. About midway through the
4
school year, Clarence's brother and their cousin, Little Richard,
accidentally burned their house down. As a result, Clarence and
his brother moved to Savannah to live with their mother. They
lived in one room of a tenement. There was a common kitchen.
The kitchen floor consisted of old linoleum on the ground. There
was an old gas stove that rarely worked and the old ice box in
the upstairs hall rarely had ice in it. There was also a common
toilet outside. The wooden structure had rotted, the toilet
itself was always filthy and leaked sewage into the backyard.
There was a small kerosene stove in the room for heat. Clarence
usually slept on a loveseat while his brother slept in the bed
with their mother. Their mother worked long hours as a maid, for
$20.00 every two weeks. She left early in the morning and
returned at the end of the day. Clarence completed the first
grade at Florance Street School. He attended afternoon classes.
He had poor attendance and often wandered the streets of
Savannah.
In the summer of 1955, Clarence and his brother went to live with
their maternal grandparents, Myers and Christine Anderson. Their
grandparents had an ice delivery and fuel oil business. Their
grandmother had a sixth grade education and their grandfather had
gone to the third grade, although he made it very clear that in
those three years he learned nothing since he was only allowed to
attend school for a small fraction of the school year. He
5
learned how to read and write a little after he became an adult.
Clarence's grandfather was a proud, disciplined man who believed
that everyone who could work should work. He never knew his
father, and his mother died when he was nine years old. He
lived with his grandmother, who according to him was freed from
slavery as a young girl. His grandmother died when he was twelve
years old. He then went to live with his uncle, who was a hard
man, with a family of about 16 children. Clarence's grandfather
often told stories of how they had to hunt, fish, farm, and do
"piece" work for nearby whites in order to survive. Myers
Anderson's very hard life, without mother or father, no
education, and in an era of segregation and Jim Crow laws, was a
dominant influence on the way he raised his grandsons. They had
to learn to work and to survive, no matter what happened in the
world.
The world of Clarence's youth was the world of segregated
Georgia. All of life was segregated, schools, libraries, movies,
and lunch counters. There were separate water fountains and
public restrooms for those who were "colored." Clarence recalls
an incident when they were traveling from Savannah to the farm in
Liberty County. As was customary, they stopped for gasoline.
His grandfather asked whether his wife could use the restroom.
The attendant said there was no "colored" restroom. Clarence's
6
grandfather loudly and forcefully told the attendant that if his
wife couldn't use their restroom, he couldn't use their gas.
And, they sped off and stopped at a gas station with a "colored"
restroom. This was the reality in which Myers and Christine
Anderson were determined to raise two boys who could do for
themselves.
Clarence and his brother worked with their grandfather on the
oil truck or at whatever he was doing when there was no need to
deliver oil. During the school months, they were required to be
dressed and ready for work by 3:00pm. School ended at 2:30pm.
There was always work to be done: in the yard, on old houses
that their grandparents owned, maintaining the trucks and car,
painting, roofing, plumbing, etc. On Saturdays, if there was no
oil to be delivered, the car had to be washed; the lawn, cut; the
hedges, trimmed; the yard, cleaned, shoes polished and so forth.
To Clarence and his brother, there seemed to be no rest for the
weary.
Clarence's grandfather believed that he could do just about
anything. And when Clarence and his brother would say they
couldn't do something, he would chastise them not to use the word
"cant." "Old man can't is dead. I helped bury him," he would
often say. For example, in the winter of 1957, he decided to
build a house on family farm land that had lain fallow for quite
7
some time. When he said he would build something, he meant
exactly that. He had previously built the house in which they
lived in Savannah and several of the houses which he owned in the
neighborhood. Clarence and his brother were required to work
closely with him to build the house carrying cinder blocks,
mixing cement, etc. In the spring of 1958, with the house
completed, they began to farm. Each year they cleared more and
more land to plant and cultivate. They also raised chickens,
pigs, and cows. They built garages, barns and a wire fence
around a hundred acres or so. Initially, their grandfather
plowed with a horse and mule, with Clarence and Myers following
him. Later he bought an old Ford tractor. Then Clarence and
Myers began to do quite a bit of plowing at the age of 13 or 14.
They also used the tractor to haul logs and to cut and rake hay.
Aside from plowing with a tractor, the rest of the farm work was
done manually. They worked from "sun-up to sun-down" with an
hour to an hour and a half for lunch. The extended lunch breaks
were necessitated by their grandfather's nap after lunch. Myers
Anderson believed, to his grandsons' chagrin, that the sun
should not catch anyone still in bed. Everyone should start work
as soon as there was enough daylight to see.
Myers Anderson believed strongly in the maxim: early to bed,
early to rise. He usually went to bed between 8 and 9 p.m. and
rose between 2 and 4 a.m. If his grandsons occasionally were
8
fortunate enough to sleep surreptitiously until 7 or 8 a.m., he
would observe that they must have thought that they were rich.
And, he would lecture them that a poor man could not afford to
sleep that late.
Clarence's grandparents were honest, hardworking, and deeply
religious people. They believed that hard work and decency were
indispensable. For example, at no time could the grandsons
refuse to do an errand for any neighbor. Adults were to be
addressed in a respectful manner: yes ma'am, yes sir, Miss
Gladys, Cousin Bee. At no time was a child permitted to debate
an adult.
Hard, honest work was the constant lesson. Sometimes it seemed
harsh. Clarence's grandfather repeatedly warned his grandsons
that if they didn't work they didn't eat. And, on almost a daily
basis he would remind them that his goal was to "raise them
right", and teach them "to do for yourselves." To his
grandparents' way of thinking, their grandsons had to be self-
sufficient, especially in an environment in which the odds all
seemed to be against them. The objective often seemed to be
learning how to live, without coming into contact with or relying
on a hostile, segregated world.
9
Myers Anderson was fiercely independent, and believed that his
freedom depended on his ability to survive, without reliance on a
hostile government and in an environment in which it seemed that
Blacks only had privileges--not rights. Christine Anderson was a
quiet, saintly woman. She would often intercede with her
husband, on behalf of their two grandsons. Her most constant
instruction to her grandsons was "say your prayers." And, each
morning she greeted them with their lunch, hot breakfast, and
gospel music from the radio station. She, too, worked
constantly.
Clarence's grandparents enrolled him and his brother in St.
Benedict's Grammar School, a segregated Catholic school.
Although the physical plant was old, the education was rigorous.
Franciscan nuns taught them. Education was the number one
priority. No excuses. Myers and his brother were informed and
reminded, as required, that in any disagreement with the
teachers, they were always wrong and the teachers were always
right. Clarence and his brother missed one-half day from school
during the entire time they lived with their grandparents.
Education was seen as the key to a better way of life.
Clarence's grandfather felt that Catholic schools were better
because there was corporal punishment, discipline, and uniforms.
He didn't see how a child could be taught without these.
10
Clarence, his brother and their grandfather were members of St.
Benedict's Catholic Church, where the two boys were altar boys.
(Their grandmother attended a Baptist Church.) At St. Benedict's
Grammar School, the nuns stressed the inherent equality of all
people, and pushed the students to excel. At home, at school,
and at Church, Clarence was constantly pushed and encouraged to
perform and achieve--no matter what the odds were.
From 1962-64, Clarence attended St. Pius X High School for the
9th and 10th grades. St. Pius X was also segregated and also
taught by the Franciscan nuns. In 1964, Clarence transferred to
St. John Vianney Minor Seminary near Savannah. He repeated the
10th grade in order to take three years of Latin. He finished
his high school education there in 1967. At St. John's, he was
the only black student in his class. There was one other black
student in the freshman class during Clarence's first year,
however, he did not return for his sophomore year. Attending St.
John's was Clarence's first regular contact with whites, other
than nuns. At St. John's, Clarence redoubled his efforts to
achieve. And, he did very well. One indication of what his
classmates thought of his efforts can be gleaned from a
statement which they placed under his yearbook picture: "Blew
that exam, only got a 98."
11
From 1967-68, his freshman year in college, Clarence attended
Immaculate Conception Seminary in Conception Junction, Missouri.
He transferred to Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts
for his sophomore year and graduated with honors in 1971. There,
he helped found the Black Students Union, where he served as an
officer for three years. He worked in the Free Breakfast Program
and tutored in the Worcester community. Clarence was an
excellent student who was considered by many to be a "grind."
His college education was financed by a combination of
scholarships, loans and work study. However, there always seemed
to be well-intentioned persons who helped when times were most
difficult. One such person was an anonymous donor of $300.00 to
finance a speed reading course for Clarence.
From 1971-74, Clarence attended Yale Law School with the intent
of returning to Savannah. He worked for New Haven Legal
Assistance during law school and the summers of 1971 and 1972.
He worked for a small integrated firm in Savannah in the summer
of 1973, financed, in part, by a grant from the Law Students
Civil Rights Research Council.
During his third year in law school, Clarence decided not to
return to Savannah as he had originally planned. Since he was
married, had a child, and student loans, he reluctantly
interviewed with law firms. In the process, he once again
12
confronted an old nemesis, racial discrimination. Though he had
done well in law school, he was interrogated about his
performance in college, high school and even grammar school. The
interview process tended to be insulting and condescending. The
obvious assumption was that Clarence was not as good as his white
classmates, even if his law school grades were higher.
Ultimately, John C. Danforth, then Attorney General of Missouri,
offered Clarence a job in his office. Clarence was first
impressed by Danforth's sincerity and honesty. He first admitted
to Clarence that he did not know how it was to be Black and poor
since he was neither. Then he promised Clarence that he would
treat him the same as everyone in the office.
Clarence sat for the Missouri bar in the summer of 1974. That
summer would be most memorable not for the bar examination but
for his two-month stay at the house of Margaret Bush-Wilson, who
would later become Chairman of the Board of the NAACP. She
allowed Clarence to live at her house, since he had no money and
knew no one in Missouri. Her generosity, advice and counsel have
influenced and remained with Clarence over the years.
In August of 1974, Clarence and his family moved to Jefferson
City, Missouri. The job in the Attorney General's office turned
13
out to be everything that it had been billed to be. The work was
endless, the staff was small, and there was no bureaucracy in the
office. It was perfect for a young attorney. Three days after
being sworn in as a member of the Missouri bar, Clarence argued
his first case before the Supreme Court of Missouri. Over the
next 2-1/2 years, he would represent the state in many cases
before the trial courts, appellate courts, and Supreme Court of
Missouri, in matters ranging from criminal law to taxation.
In 1977, Clarence left the Attorney General's Office and went to
work in the law department of Monsanto Company, where he worked
on general corporate legal matters such as antitrust, contracts
and governmental regulations.
He rejoined now Senator Danforth in August of 1979 as a
legislative assistant. During his 1-1/2 years on Capitol Hill,
Clarence was responsible for issues involving energy,
environment, federal lands and public works.
He was nominated in the spring of 1981 by President Reagan as the
Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of
Education. In the spring of 1982, he was nominated by President
Reagan to become Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission. He was sworn in on May 17, 1982. He was renominated
and reconfirmed in 1986. Having been Chairman of EEOC for more
14
than seven years, he has served longer in that position than any
of his seven predecessors.
Clarence was appointed by President Bush to the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the District of Columbia on March 6, 1990. He
was President Bush's first appointee to that court.
Clarence's first marriage ended in divorce. He has one son,
Jamal, by that marriage, and has had custody of Jamal since 1983.
For most of his tenure at EEOC he has been a single parent. Jamal
is now 16 years old and a junior in high school.
Clarence remarried in May of 1987. His bride is the former
Virginia Bess Lamp. Mrs. Thomas is a Senior Legislative Officer
at the U.S. Department of Labor. Clarence, Virginia, and Jamal
reside in northern Virginia.
INFORMAL BIOGRAPHY
Clarence Thomas was born on June 23, 1948, in a small wood frame
house outside of Savannah, Georgia. The house in which he was
born, as well as the bed, was owned by Annie Crawford, his young
mother's aunt. He was brought into this world by a midwife. His
birth certificate reads simply that he was born in Pinpoint,
Rural. His mother's name was Leola Thomas and is currently Leola
Williams. His father's name is M.C. Thomas. The initials do not
represent additional names. Clarence's father left while he was
still a toddler, and has lived in Philadelphia most of Clarence's
life. Clarence would see him only once during his childhood, at
the age of nine.
For the first six and a half years of his life he lived in
Pinpoint with his mother, her aunt and uncle, together with his
older sister and a younger brother, Myers. They lived in the
same wood frame house in which Clarence was born. The community
of Pinpoint is one of many Black communities outside Savannah,
Georgia. Although development threatens its existence today, in
the late 40's and early 50's it was indeed rural. In Drums and
Shadows - survival studies among the Georgia Negroes, Pinpoint is
described as follows:
"Pinpoint, a Negro community about nine miles
southeast of Savannah is scattered over some
2
twenty or thirty acres on a peninsula
overlooking Shipyard Creek. Many of the
small wooden cabins are neatly whitewashed
and are half hidden by shrubbery and
spreading oaks. Flowers and vegetables are
planted in the most advantageous sunny spots
near the houses and most yards are enclosed
by picket fences, giving a cozy and pleasant
privacy. The lawns, little more than wagon
tracks, twist in and across the settlement.
The informal and haphazard scattering of the
houses, with high shrubbery bordering the
lawns, gives an effect that is pleasing and
unusual.
Pinpoint has a church, a pavilion on the
tidewater creek, and a crab cannery. The
men and women who do not work as domestic
servants at the nearby country places find
employment in the crab cannery or fish and
crab and shrimp for themselves. The life is
quiet, soothed by the smell of salt marsh.
***
3
The people are, almost without exception,
black or dark skinned, proud, upstanding and
loyal, suspicious of strangers but generous
and trusting to friends." (cites omitted).
The house in which Clarence and his family lived was simple, but
always neat and pleasant. For lighting, they used kerosene
lamps, and there were also several electric ceiling lights. They
had no indoor plumbing, and shared an outhouse with several
neighbors. They carried water from a common pump usually in
water buckets. As alluded to in Drums and Shadows, supra, every-
one worked. Women did "day" work, cleaning houses for the whites
who lived nearby. They also shucked oysters and picked crabs.
Kids would often scrub crab barks to earn spending money. The
men were usually day laborers and/or they raked oysters, fished
or crabbed. They also steamed crabs, which the women then
picked. Clarence's mother was among the best crab pickers. His
sister, until recently also picked crabs on a regular basis. As
children, they played under the houses, or in the woods and
marsh. They chased and caught fiddler crabs, and minnows,
climbed trees, and played with makeshift toys.
Clarence started the first grade in September, 1954 at Haven Home
School, which was segregated. Coincidentally, Brown V. Board of
Education was decided that same year. About midway through the
4
school year, Clarence's brother and their cousin, Little Richard,
accidentally burned their house down. As a result, Clarence and
his brother moved to Savannah to live with their mother. They
lived in one room of a tenement. There was a common kitchen.
The kitchen floor consisted of old linoleum on the ground. There
was an old gas stove that rarely worked and the old ice box in
the upstairs hall rarely had ice in it. There was also a common
toilet outside. The wooden structure had rotted, the toilet
itself was always filthy and leaked sewage into the backyard.
There was a small kerosene stove in the room for heat. Clarence
usually slept on a loveseat while his brother slept in the bed
with their mother. Their mother worked long hours as a maid, for
$20.00 every two weeks. She left early in the morning and
returned at the end of the day. Clarence completed the first
grade at Florance Street School. He attended afternoon classes.
He had poor attendance and often wandered the streets of
Savannah.
In the summer of 1955, Clarence and his brother went to live with
their maternal grandparents, Myers and Christine Anderson. Their
grandparents had an ice delivery and fuel oil business. Their
grandmother had a sixth grade education and their grandfather had
gone to the third grade, although he made it very clear that in
those three years he learned nothing since he was only allowed to
attend school for a small fraction of the school year. He
5
learned how to read and write a little after he became an adult.
Clarence's grandfather was a proud, disciplined man who believed
that everyone who could work should work. He never knew his
father, and his mother died when he was nine years old. He
lived with his grandmother, who according to him was freed from
slavery as a young girl. His grandmother died when he was twelve
years old. He then went to live with his uncle, who was a hard
man, with a family of about 16 children. Clarence's grandfather
often told stories of how they had to hunt, fish, farm, and do
"piece" work for nearby whites in order to survive. Myers
Anderson's very hard life, without mother or father, no
education, and in an era of segregation and Jim Crow laws, was a
dominant influence on the way he raised his grandsons. They had
to learn to work and to survive, no matter what happened in the
world.
The world of Clarence's youth was the world of segregated
Georgia. All of life was segregated, schools, libraries, movies,
and lunch counters. There were separate water fountains and
public restrooms for those who were "colored." Clarence recalls
an incident when they were traveling from Savannah to the farm in
Liberty County. As was customary, they stopped for gasoline.
His grandfather asked whether his wife could use the restroom.
The attendant said there was no "colored" restroom. Clarence's
6
grandfather loudly and forcefully told the attendant that if his
wife couldn't use their restroom, he couldn't use their gas.
And, they sped off and stopped at a gas station with a "colored"
restroom. This was the reality in which Myers and Christine
Anderson were determined to raise two boys who could do for
themselves.
Clarence and his brother worked with their grandfather on the
oil truck or at whatever he was doing when there was no need to
deliver oil. During the school months, they were required to be
dressed and ready for work by 3:00pm. School ended at 2:30pm.
There was always work to be done: in the yard, on old houses
that their grandparents owned, maintaining the trucks and car,
painting, roofing, plumbing, etc. On Saturdays, if there was no
oil to be delivered, the car had to be washed; the lawn, cut; the
hedges, trimmed; the yard, cleaned, shoes polished and so forth.
To Clarence and his brother, there seemed to be no rest for the
weary.
Clarence's grandfather believed that he could do just about
anything. And when Clarence and his brother would say they
couldn't do something, he would chastise them not to use the word
"cant." "Old man can't is dead. I helped bury him," he would
often say. For example, in the winter of 1957, he decided to
build a house on family farm land that had lain fallow for quite
7
some time. When he said he would build something, he meant
exactly that. He had previously built the house in which they
lived in Savannah and several of the houses which he owned in the
neighborhood. Clarence and his brother were required to work
closely with him to build the house carrying cinder blocks,
mixing cement, etc. In the spring of 1958, with the house
completed, they began to farm. Each year they cleared more and
more land to plant and cultivate. They also raised chickens,
pigs, and cows. They built garages, barns and a wire fence
around a hundred acres or so. Initially, their grandfather
plowed with a horse and mule, with Clarence and Myers following
him. Later he bought an old Ford tractor. Then Clarence and
Myers began to do quite a bit of plowing at the age of 13 or 14.
They also used the tractor to haul logs and to cut and rake hay.
Aside from plowing with a tractor, the rest of the farm work was
done manually. They worked from "sun-up to sun-down" with an
hour to an hour and a half for lunch. The extended lunch breaks
were necessitated by their grandfather's nap after lunch. Myers
Anderson believed, to his grandsons' chagrin, that the sun
should not catch anyone still in bed. Everyone should start work
as soon as there was enough daylight to see.
Myers Anderson believed strongly in the maxim: early to bed,
early to rise. He usually went to bed between 8 and 9 p.m. and
rose between 2 and 4 a.m. If his grandsons occasionally were
8
fortunate enough to sleep surreptitiously until 7 or 8 a.m., he
would observe that they must have thought that they were rich.
And, he would lecture them that a poor man could not afford to
sleep that late.
Clarence's grandparents were honest, hardworking, and deeply
religious people. They believed that hard work and decency were
indispensable. For example, at no time could the grandsons
refuse to do an errand for any neighbor. Adults were to be
addressed in a respectful manner: yes ma'am, yes sir, Miss
Gladys, Cousin Bee. At no time was a child permitted to debate
an adult.
Hard, honest work was the constant lesson. Sometimes it seemed
harsh. Clarence's grandfather repeatedly warned his grandsons
that if they didn't work they didn't eat. And, on almost a daily
basis he would remind them that his goal was to "raise them
right", and teach them "to do for yourselves." To his
grandparents' way of thinking, their grandsons had to be self-
sufficient, especially in an environment in which the odds all
seemed to be against them. The objective often seemed to be
learning how to live, without coming into contact with or relying
on a hostile, segregated world.
9
Myers Anderson was fiercely independent, and believed that his
freedom depended on his ability to survive, without reliance on a
hostile government and in an environment in which it seemed that
Blacks only had privileges--not rights. Christine Anderson was a
quiet, saintly woman. She would often intercede with her
husband, on behalf of their two grandsons. Her most constant
instruction to her grandsons was "say your prayers." And, each
morning she greeted them with their lunch, hot breakfast, and
gospel music from the radio station. She, too, worked
constantly.
Clarence's grandparents enrolled him and his brother in St.
Benedict's Grammar School, a segregated Catholic school.
Although the physical plant was old, the education was rigorous.
Franciscan nuns taught them. Education was the number one
priority. No excuses. Myers and his brother were informed and
reminded, as required, that in any disagreement with the
teachers, they were always wrong and the teachers were always
right. Clarence and his brother missed one-half day from school
during the entire time they lived with their grandparents.
Education was seen as the key to a better way of life.
Clarence's grandfather felt that Catholic schools were better
because there was corporal punishment, discipline, and uniforms.
He didn't see how a child could be taught without these.
10
Clarence, his brother and their grandfather were members of St.
Benedict's Catholic Church, where the two boys were altar boys.
(Their grandmother attended a Baptist Church.) At St. Benedict's
Grammar School, the nuns stressed the inherent equality of all
people, and pushed the students to excel. At home, at school,
and at Church, Clarence was constantly pushed and encouraged to
perform and achieve--no matter what the odds were.
From 1962-64, Clarence attended St. Pius X High School for the
9th and 10th grades. St. Pius X was also segregated and also
taught by the Franciscan nuns. In 1964, Clarence transferred to
St. John Vianney Minor Seminary near Savannah. He repeated the
10th grade in order to take three years of Latin. He finished
his high school education there in 1967. At St. John's, he was
the only black student in his class. There was one other black
student in the freshman class during Clarence's first year,
however, he did not return for his sophomore year. Attending St.
John's was Clarence's first regular contact with whites, other
than nuns. At St. John's, Clarence redoubled his efforts to
achieve. And, he did very well. One indication of what his
classmates thought of his efforts can be gleaned from a
statement which they placed under his yearbook picture: "Blew
that exam, only got a 98."
11
From 1967-68, his freshman year in college, Clarence attended
Immaculate Conception Seminary in Conception Junction, Missouri.
He transferred to Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts
for his sophomore year and graduated with honors in 1971. There,
he helped found the Black Students Union, where he served as an
officer for three years. He worked in the Free Breakfast Program
and tutored in the Worcester community. Clarence was an
excellent student who was considered by many to be a "grind."
His college education was financed by a combination of
scholarships, loans and work study. However, there always seemed
to be well-intentioned persons who helped when times were most
difficult. One such person was an anonymous donor of $300.00 to
finance a speed reading course for Clarence.
From 1971-74, Clarence attended Yale Law School with the intent
of returning to Savannah. He worked for New Haven Legal
Assistance during law school and the summers of 1971 and 1972.
He worked for a small integrated firm in Savannah in the summer
of 1973, financed, in part, by a grant from the Law Students
Civil Rights Research Council.
During his third year in law school, Clarence decided not to
return to Savannah as he had originally planned. Since he was
married, had a child, and student loans, he reluctantly
interviewed with law firms. In the process, he once again
12
confronted an old nemesis, racial discrimination. Though he had
done well in law school, he was interrogated about his
performance in college, high school and even grammar school. The
interview process tended to be insulting and condescending. The
obvious assumption was that Clarence was not as good as his white
classmates, even if his law school grades were higher.
Ultimately, John C. Danforth, then Attorney General of Missouri,
offered Clarence a job in his office. Clarence was first
impressed by Danforth's sincerity and honesty. He first admitted
to Clarence that he did not know how it was to be Black and poor
since he was neither. Then he promised Clarence that he would
treat him the same as everyone in the office.
Clarence sat for the Missouri bar in the summer of 1974. That
summer would be most memorable not for the bar examination but
for his two-month stay at the house of Margaret Bush-Wilson, who
would later become Chairman of the Board of the NAACP. She
allowed Clarence to live at her house, since he had no money and
knew no one in Missouri. Her generosity, advice and counsel have
influenced and remained with Clarence over the years.
In August of 1974, Clarence and his family moved to Jefferson
City, Missouri. The job in the Attorney General's office turned
13
out to be everything that it had been billed to be. The work was
endless, the staff was small, and there was no bureaucracy in the
office. It was perfect for a young attorney. Three days after
being sworn in as a member of the Missouri bar, Clarence argued
his first case before the Supreme Court of Missouri. Over the
next 2-1/2 years, he would represent the state in many cases
before the trial courts, appellate courts, and Supreme Court of
Missouri, in matters ranging from criminal law to taxation.
In 1977, Clarence left the Attorney General's Office and went to
work in the law department of Monsanto Company, where he worked
on general corporate legal matters such as antitrust, contracts
and governmental regulations.
He rejoined now Senator Danforth in August of 1979 as a
legislative assistant. During his 1-1/2 years on Capitol Hill,
Clarence was responsible for issues involving energy,
environment, federal lands and public works.
He was nominated in the spring of 1981 by President Reagan as the
Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of
Education. In the spring of 1982, he was nominated by President
Reagan to become Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission. He was sworn in on May 17, 1982. He was renominated
and reconfirmed in 1986. Having been Chairman of EEOC for more
14
than seven years, he has served longer in that position than any
of his seven predecessors.
Clarence was appointed by President Bush to the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the District of Columbia on March 6, 1990. He
was President Bush's first appointee to that court.
Clarence's first marriage ended in divorce. He has one son,
Jamal, by that marriage, and has had custody of Jamal since 1983.
For most of his tenure at EEOC he has been a single parent. Jamal
is now 16 years old and a junior in high school.
Clarence remarried in May of 1987. His bride is the former
Virginia Bess Lamp. Mrs. Thomas is a Senior Legislative Officer
at the U.S. Department of Labor. Clarence, Virginia, and Jamal
reside in northern Virginia.
ADF
INFORMAL BIOGRAPHY
Dec 7th/
Clarence Thomas was born on June 23, 1948, in a small wood frame
house outside of Savannah, Georgia. The house in which he was
born, as well as the bed, was owned by Annie Crawford, his young
mother's aunt. He was brought into this world by a midwife. His
birth certificate reads simply that he was born in Pinpoint,
Rural. His mother's name was Leola Thomas and is currently Leola
Williams. His father's name is M.C. Thomas. The initials do not
represent additional names. Clarence's father left while he was
still a toddler, and has lived in Philadelphia most of Clarence's
life. Clarence would see him only once during his childhood, at
the age of nine.
For the first six and a half years of his life he lived in
Pinpoint with his mother, her aunt and uncle, together with his
older sister and a younger brother, Myers. They lived in the
same wood frame house in which Clarence was born. The community
of Pinpoint is one of many Black communities outside Savannah,
Georgia. Although development threatens its existence today, in
the late 40's and early 50's it was indeed rural. In Drums and
Shadows - survival studies among the Georgia Negroes, Pinpoint is
described as follows:
"Pinpoint, a Negro community about nine miles
southeast of Savannah is scattered over some
2
twenty or thirty acres on a peninsula
overlooking Shipyard Creek. Many of the
small wooden cabins are neatly whitewashed
and are half hidden by shrubbery and
spreading oaks. Flowers and vegetables are
planted in the most advantageous sunny spots
near the houses and most yards are enclosed
by picket fences, giving a cozy and pleasant
privacy. The lawns, little more than wagon
tracks, twist in and across the settlement.
The informal and haphazard scattering of the
houses, with high shrubbery bordering the
lawns, gives an effect that is pleasing and
unusual.
Pinpoint has a church, a pavilion on the
tidewater creek, and a crab cannery. The
men and women who do not work as domestic
servants at the nearby country places find
employment in the crab cannery or fish and
crab and shrimp for themselves. The life is
quiet, soothed by the smell of salt marsh.
***
3
The people are, almost without exception,
black or dark skinned, proud, upstanding and
loyal, suspicious of strangers but generous
and trusting to friends." (cites omitted).
The house in which Clarence and his family lived was simple, but
always neat and pleasant. For lighting, they used kerosene
lamps, and there were also several electric ceiling lights. They
had no indoor plumbing, and shared an outhouse with several
neighbors. They carried water from a common pump usually in
water buckets. As alluded to in Drums and Shadows, supra, every-
one worked. Women did "day" work, cleaning houses for the whites
who lived nearby. They also shucked oysters and picked crabs.
Kids would often scrub crab barks to earn spending money. The
men were usually day laborers and/or they raked oysters, fished
or crabbed. They also steamed crabs, which the women then
picked. Clarence's mother was among the best crab pickers. His
sister, until recently also picked crabs on a regular basis. As
children, they played under the houses, or in the woods and
marsh. They chased and caught fiddler crabs, and minnows,
climbed trees, and played with makeshift toys.
Clarence started the first grade in September, 1954 at Haven Home
School, which was segregated. Coincidentally, Brown V. Board of
Education was decided that same year. About midway through the
4
school year, Clarence's brother and their cousin, Little Richard,
accidentally burned their house down. As a result, Clarence and
his brother moved to Savannah to live with their mother. They
lived in one room of a tenement. There was a common kitchen.
The kitchen floor consisted of old linoleum on the ground. There
was an old gas stove that rarely worked and the old ice box in
the upstairs hall rarely had ice in it. There was also a common
toilet outside. The wooden structure had rotted, the toilet
itself was always filthy and leaked sewage into the backyard.
There was a small kerosene stove in the room for heat. Clarence
usually slept on a loveseat while his brother slept in the bed
with their mother. Their mother worked long hours as a maid, for
$20.00 every two weeks. She left early in the morning and
returned at the end of the day. Clarence completed the first
grade at Florance Street School. He attended afternoon classes.
He had poor attendance and often wandered the streets of
Savannah.
In the summer of 1955, Clarence and his brother went to live with
their maternal grandparents, Myers and Christine Anderson. Their
grandparents had an ice delivery and fuel oil business. Their
grandmother had a sixth grade education and their grandfather had
gone to the third grade, although he made it very clear that in
those three years he learned nothing since he was only allowed to
attend school for a small fraction of the school year. He
5
learned how to read and write a little after he became an adult.
Clarence's grandfather was a proud, disciplined man who believed
that everyone who could work should work. He never knew his
father, and his mother died when he was nine years old. He
lived with his grandmother, who according to him was freed from
slavery as a young girl. His grandmother died when he was twelve
years old. He then went to live with his uncle, who was a hard
man, with a family of about 16 children. Clarence's grandfather
often told stories of how they had to hunt, fish, farm, and do
"piece" work for nearby whites in order to survive. Myers
Anderson's very hard life, without mother or father, no
education, and in an era of segregation and Jim Crow laws, was a
dominant influence on the way he raised his grandsons. They had
to learn to work and to survive, no matter what happened in the
world.
The world of Clarence's youth was the world of segregated
Georgia. All of life was segregated, schools, libraries, movies,
and lunch counters. There were separate water fountains and
public restrooms for those who were "colored." Clarence recalls
an incident when they were traveling from Savannah to the farm in
Liberty County. As was customary, they stopped for gasoline.
His grandfather asked whether his wife could use the restroom.
The attendant said there was no "colored" restroom. Clarence's
6
grandfather loudly and forcefully told the attendant that if his
wife couldn't use their restroom, he couldn't use their gas.
And, they sped off and stopped at a gas station with a "colored"
restroom. This was the reality in which Myers and Christine
Anderson were determined to raise two boys who could do for
themselves.
Clarence and his brother worked with their grandfather on the
oil truck or at whatever he was doing when there was no need to
deliver oil. During the school months, they were required to be
dressed and ready for work by 3:00pm. School ended at 2:30pm.
There was always work to be done: in the yard, on old houses
that their grandparents owned, maintaining the trucks and car,
painting, roofing, plumbing, etc. On Saturdays, if there was no
oil to be delivered, the car had to be washed; the lawn, cut; the
hedges, trimmed; the yard, cleaned, shoes polished and so forth.
To Clarence and his brother, there seemed to be no rest for the
weary.
Clarence's grandfather believed that he could do just about
anything. And when Clarence and his brother would say they
couldn't do something, he would chastise them not to use the word
"cant." "Old man can't is dead. I helped bury him," he would
often say. For example, in the winter of 1957, he decided to
build a house on family farm land that had lain fallow for quite
7
some time. When he said he would build something, he meant
exactly that. He had previously built the house in which they
lived in Savannah and several of the houses which he owned in the
neighborhood. Clarence and his brother were required to work
closely with him to build the house carrying cinder blocks,
mixing cement, etc. In the spring of 1958, with the house
completed, they began to farm. Each year they cleared more and
more land to plant and cultivate. They also raised chickens,
pigs, and cows. They built garages, barns and a wire fence
around a hundred acres or so. Initially, their grandfather
plowed with a horse and mule, with Clarence and Myers following
him. Later he bought an old Ford tractor. Then Clarence and
Myers began to do quite a bit of plowing at the age of 13 or 14.
They also used the tractor to haul logs and to cut and rake hay.
Aside from plowing with a tractor, the rest of the farm work was
done manually. They worked from "sun-up to sun-down" with an
hour to an hour and a half for lunch. The extended lunch breaks
were necessitated by their grandfather's nap after lunch. Myers
Anderson believed, to his grandsons' chagrin, that the sun
should not catch anyone still in bed. Everyone should start work
as soon as there was enough daylight to see.
Myers Anderson believed strongly in the maxim: early to bed,
early to rise. He usually went to bed between 8 and 9 p.m. and
rose between 2 and 4 a.m. If his grandsons occasionally were
8
fortunate enough to sleep surreptitiously until 7 or 8 a.m., he
would observe that they must have thought that they were rich.
And, he would lecture them that a poor man could not afford to
sleep that late.
Clarence's grandparents were honest, hardworking, and deeply
religious people. They believed that hard work and decency were
indispensable. For example, at no time could the grandsons
refuse to do an errand for any neighbor. Adults were to be
addressed in a respectful manner: yes ma'am, yes sir, Miss
Gladys, Cousin Bee. At no time was a child permitted to debate
an adult.
Hard, honest work was the constant lesson. Sometimes it seemed
harsh. Clarence's grandfather repeatedly warned his grandsons
that if they didn't work they didn't eat. And, on almost a daily
basis he would remind them that his goal was to "raise them
right", and teach them "to do for yourselves." To his
grandparents' way of thinking, their grandsons had to be self-
sufficient, especially in an environment in which the odds all
seemed to be against them. The objective often seemed to be
learning how to live, without coming into contact with or relying
on a hostile, segregated world.
9
Myers Anderson was fiercely independent, and believed that his
freedom depended on his ability to survive, without reliance on a
hostile government and in an environment in which it seemed that
Blacks only had privileges--not rights. Christine Anderson was a
quiet, saintly woman. She would often intercede with her
husband, on behalf of their two grandsons. Her most constant
instruction to her grandsons was "say your prayers." And, each
morning she greeted them with their lunch, hot breakfast, and
gospel music from the radio station. She, too, worked
constantly.
Clarence's grandparents enrolled him and his brother in St.
Benedict's Grammar School, a segregated Catholic school.
Although the physical plant was old, the education was rigorous.
Franciscan nuns taught them. Education was the number one
priority. No excuses. Myers and his brother were informed and
reminded, as required, that in any disagreement with the
teachers, they were always wrong and the teachers were always
right. Clarence and his brother missed one-half day from school
during the entire time they lived with their grandparents.
Education was seen as the key to a better way of life.
Clarence's grandfather felt that Catholic schools were better
because there was corporal punishment, discipline, and uniforms.
He didn't see how a child could be taught without these.
10
Clarence, his brother and their grandfather were members of St.
Benedict's Catholic Church, where the two boys were altar boys.
(Their grandmother attended a Baptist Church.) At St. Benedict's
Grammar School, the nuns stressed the inherent equality of all
people, and pushed the students to excel. At home, at school,
and at Church, Clarence was constantly pushed and encouraged to
perform and achieve--no matter what the odds were.
From 1962-64, Clarence attended St. Pius X High School for the
9th and 10th grades. St. Pius X was also segregated and also
taught by the Franciscan nuns. In 1964, Clarence transferred to
St. John Vianney Minor Seminary near Savannah. He repeated the
10th grade in order to take three years of Latin. He finished
his high school education there in 1967. At St. John's, he was
the only black student in his class. There was one other black
student in the freshman class during Clarence's first year,
however, he did not return for his sophomore year. Attending St.
John's was Clarence's first regular contact with whites, other
than nuns. At St. John's, Clarence redoubled his efforts to
achieve. And, he did very well. One indication of what his
classmates thought of his efforts can be gleaned from a
statement which they placed under his yearbook picture: "Blew
that exam, only got a 98."
11
From 1967-68, his freshman year in college, Clarence attended
Immaculate Conception Seminary in Conception Junction, Missouri.
He transferred to Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts
for his sophomore year and graduated with honors in 1971. There,
he helped found the Black Students Union, where he served as an
officer for three years. He worked in the Free Breakfast Program
and tutored in the Worcester community. Clarence was an
excellent student who was considered by many to be a "grind."
His college education was financed by a combination of
scholarships, loans and work study. However, there always seemed
to be well-intentioned persons who helped when times were most
difficult. One such person was an anonymous donor of $300.00 to
finance a speed reading course for Clarence.
From 1971-74, Clarence attended Yale Law School with the intent
of returning to Savannah. He worked for New Haven Legal
Assistance during law school and the summers of 1971 and 1972.
He worked for a small integrated firm in Savannah in the summer
of 1973, financed, in part, by a grant from the Law Students
Civil Rights Research Council.
During his third year in law school, Clarence decided not to
return to Savannah as he had originally planned. Since he was
married, had a child, and student loans, he reluctantly
interviewed with law firms. In the process, he once again
12
confronted an old nemesis, racial discrimination. Though he had
done well in law school, he was interrogated about his
performance in college, high school and even grammar school. The
interview process tended to be insulting and condescending. The
obvious assumption was that Clarence was not as good as his white
classmates, even if his law school grades were higher.
Ultimately, John C. Danforth, then Attorney General of Missouri,
offered Clarence a job in his office. Clarence was first
impressed by Danforth's sincerity and honesty. He first admitted
to Clarence that he did not know how it was to be Black and poor
since he was neither. Then he promised Clarence that he would
treat him the same as everyone in the office.
Clarence sat for the Missouri bar in the summer of 1974. That
summer would be most memorable not for the bar examination but
for his two-month stay at the house of Margaret Bush-Wilson, who
would later become Chairman of the Board of the NAACP. She
allowed Clarence to live at her house, since he had no money and
knew no one in Missouri. Her generosity, advice and counsel have
influenced and remained with Clarence over the years.
In August of 1974, Clarence and his family moved to Jefferson
City, Missouri. The job in the Attorney General's office turned
13
out to be everything that it had been billed to be. The work was
endless, the staff was small, and there was no bureaucracy in the
office. It was perfect for a young attorney. Three days after
being sworn in as a member of the Missouri bar, Clarence argued
his first case before the Supreme Court of Missouri. Over the
next 2-1/2 years, he would represent the state in many cases
before the trial courts, appellate courts, and Supreme Court of
Missouri, in matters ranging from criminal law to taxation.
In 1977, Clarence left the Attorney General's Office and went to
work in the law department of Monsanto Company, where he worked
on general corporate legal matters such as antitrust, contracts
and governmental regulations.
He rejoined now Senator Danforth in August of 1979 as a
legislative assistant. During his 1-1/2 years on Capitol Hill,
Clarence was responsible for issues involving energy,
environment, federal lands and public works.
He was nominated in the spring of 1981 by President Reagan as the
Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of
Education. In the spring of 1982, he was nominated by President
Reagan to become Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission. He was sworn in on May 17, 1982. He was renominated
and reconfirmed in 1986. Having been Chairman of EEOC for more
14
than seven years, he has served longer in that position than any
of his seven predecessors.
Clarence was appointed by President Bush to the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the District of Columbia on March 6, 1990. He
was President Bush's first appointee to that court.
Clarence's first marriage ended in divorce. He has one son,
Jamal, by that marriage, and has had custody of Jamal since 1983.
For most of his tenure at EEOC he has been a single parent. Jamal
is now 16 years old and a junior in high school.
Clarence remarried in May of 1987. His bride is the former
Virginia Bess Lamp. Mrs. Thomas is a Senior Legislative Officer
at the U.S. Department of Labor. Clarence, Virginia, and Jamal
reside in northern Virginia.
07/12/91
10:16
002
Gary A.
Franks
U.S. 110USR OF
Congressman
5th District, Connecticut
STATING
NEWSRELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: CHRIS HEALY 225-7865
FRANKS SUPPORTS THOMAS DESPITE CBC VOTE
WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Gary A. Franks, R-CT, Thursday, dissented
with members of the Congressional Black Caucus in their
denunciation of Supreme Court candidate, Federal Appeals Court
Judge Clarence Thomas.
"I respectfully disagree with my colleagues on their opinion
of Judge Thomas," said Franks. "Judge Thomas is a qualified, fair
jurist who will be a tremendous addition to the highest court in
the land."
Franks said Judge Thomas readily appreciates protecting
individual liberties and rights and brings a wealth of public
sector experience to this position.
"He has an impressive resume and a deep conviction for
fairness," said Franks. "I am confident Judge Thomas he will be a
great Associate Justice."
-30-
CONNECTICUT OFFICES
WASHINGTON OFFICE
135 Grand Street. Suite 210
30 Main Street
1609 Longworth Building
Waterbury CT 06702-1911
Danbury, CT 06810-3003
Washington, D.C. 20515-0705
(203) 573-1418
(203) 790-1263
(202) 225-3822